[zazen999]

What about sowing in 2" biodegradable pots first ?

Why?

Waste of £

Chuck a load of seeds in any suitable flattish container; or in pots and forget about them for several months. Give them a swift water when they look a bit dry and spend your time on the tender crops.

[DD.]

That's in effect what I said!

[zazen999]

That's in effect what I said!

Sorry, I felt it needed saying twice; just to be on the safe side

[DD.]

That's 4 times now - no 5!

[Jonajo]

What about one re-useable cat litter tray for 96 seedlings?

Leeks don't mind a bit of rough treatment when transplanting & I can see no advantage in giving each a pot.

thats how my leeks are planted - a huge unused-by-cat litter tray and compost: sow, thin,look after, leave until ready to transplant. Easy, cheap and does not take up the space that endless smaller containers would. 

[DD.]

I don't thin.  I sow each seed an inch apart from the outset.  See my previous link.

[Jonajo]

ah now i do thin for the specific reason that the thinnings are EXCELLENT in a salad - they have a leeky/oniony flavour and a small amount in a salad makes a wonderful addition.

I have also been known to sow a packet of seeds just for salad throughout the season too

[RichardA]

To get some continuity of leeks for the kitchen I start some in a deep tray in the greenhouse early as DD does and transplant as soon as pencil size etc and also sow some seeds in a short row outside about 4 weeks later - they come slower and sometimes sturdier and they are transplanted about 8 to 10  weeks later than those from the greenhouse trays. Often go in after first potato row lifted and space comes free. I plant in trench and gradually pull soil up to blanch stems.
Small ones and any surplus also go in salads and stir fries. With polytunnel now up and going might also put a few in there for stir fries.
I don't always do well with spring onions but leeks are easy. (Note to myself -- try harder with spring onions !!!!!!!!!!!!!)
R

[Salmo]

Monty makes a lot of sense as he usually does.

He grows the leeks 4 to a module until they are pencil size and then plants them out singly. A 24 module tray will produce 96 leek plants.

That is not a lot different from DD's cat poo tray and has the added advantage that the modules can be planted out into open ground once they are established and then grown on to pencil size without the bother of watering.

The weak point with the DD method is that the leeks are in the tray for a long time. Forget to water them and they are finished.

[DD.]

The strong point with DD's method is that you can look after them at home until planting time, without having to trundle miles (if that's the case) to the plot and they only get transplanted once.

[sunshineband]

That's fine if you only want the very thin ones.
The small ones didn't work very well, this hard winter. By the time I pulled the mushy outside layers off, I only had 'spring onions' left

So although I'm not into any inadequacy theories I do think they do need to be a decent size ....just to survive

I didn't have quite enough space for all the leeks so tried this idea last year -- not  a great success as MoS says, whereas the ones at 10 ins spacing each way in the same bed are good    I shan't do that again 

[Salmo]

I do mine the easy way.
Sprinkle leek seed thinly along a row, add some spring onion seed, cover with soil, harvest spring onions and leek thinnings for salads, transplant leeks to final bed.

[DD.]

Depends how many you're doing.

300-400 leeks is awful lot of thinning and spring onions to eat in one go.

Don't get many weeds either.

[lucywil]

I do mine the easy way.
Sprinkle leek seed thinly along a row, add some spring onion seed, cover with soil, harvest spring onions and leek thinnings for salads, transplant leeks to final bed.

how do you tell the difference between the spring onions and the leeks?

I have been doing mine the DD way for a couple of years now and it seems pretty easy to me and i am no expert

[Salmo]

When I say thinning I mean taking some out to eat, I sow them about an inch apart. A 10 foot nursery row provides all the leek plants I want plus spring onions.

You will need a 30ft row DD and sell the surplus spring onions on your stall.

I am not sure whether I grow leeks plants with spring onions as a bonus or vici versa.

Lucy -  Onions = round leaves. Leeks = flat leaves