[Vitoria plum]

my leeks are being eaten little long shape hole and  i have put slug pellets down, but also have rust marks help

[shaun]

not sure what it is victoria but ive never had slugs eating leaks

[WG.]

Leek moth?  We need piccies please

[muntjac]

to cold for em mate it will be beetle  

[milkman]

have to disagree munty - our site is being decimated by leek moth larvae at the moment - tell tale signs are that the leaves start looking shredded, mankey and pale discoloured, and if you look carefully you will come across the brown lacey cocoons amongst the leaves.

it is more prevalent in the south east of this country but appears to be spreading westwards.

if the plants are well established they should recover - last year I chopped off all the worst looking bits and still harvested a reasonable set of leeks over the winter.

this year I covered my leeklets with viromesh upon planting out so happily they are leek-moth-free

vic plum it may be worth checking the leeks growing on other plots on your site - if they are all looking like yours chances are you are suffering a leek moth infestation, sadly no amount of slug pellets will solve this problem - as shaun says, leeks aren't generally on a slug's menu.

[muntjac]

thats bad for you then milkman   .if thats the case id go n hit the whole lot with water -washing up liquid with some glycerine in it shaken well the stuff will stick to the moths n kill em off   the weather problems have realy cocked things up   :roll:

[milkman]

yup, till last year I never knew what a leek moth was - now it looks like they're here to stay.

[shaun]

dont like the sound of them.

[milkman]

they are apparently wreaking havoc across europe, just like blue tongue.

[Annie]

Must as Santa for more viromesh!No sign here at the mo.but no doubt they will come.

[Vitoria plum]

yup, till last year I never knew what a leek moth was - now it looks like they're here to stay.

Yes it was the leek moth, when i looked close their was little white maggot looking things and small cobwebs on some leek flags, they are real nasty and then i started to look at other peoples leeks and they were all like it, spoke to an older lady and she said she had then last year she told me they were on the coast but now come more inland, started in canada, and they nearly mess up most of the leek , but told me other them up next year with mesh/fleece, but to late and i planted 70 leeks so quite upset, but you learn as you go along............thanks for your help

[new_2_veg]

mine and starting to go to seed, i have no idea why

[muntjac]

cos thgey bolted n2v . weather ..... probably the cause  :roll:

[WG.]

mine and starting to go to seed, i have no idea why

Planting too early is one possible cause.  When did you plant?

[new_2_veg]

cant remember excactly

i know it was the time recomended to me, the ones that have 2 seed heads on where given to me as plants but the guy i got them from showed me his earlyer and they are fine, also bigger than mine