Growing Leeks in pipes.

I've seen leeks once established have grey plastic plumbing pipes slipped over them to blanch the stalks so that you get whiter stems.  The grey 40mm internal plumbing drain pipes.  I don't think that you can grow leeks in pipes from seedlings.

Wait until you transplant your leeks at pencil size into their final growing space.  Give them a few weeks to establish themselves and crucially let the leaves to fill out. 

(Check them for disease before covering. You don't want to cover a diseased plant.)

Take an length of water pipe, hold your leek so that you have all the leaves pointing at the sky and carefully slip the water pipe over the top of the leaves and down the stem and firmly push into the ground a good two inches.

A few things to things to remember.  You have to plant your leeks quite deep to begin with to get white flesh.  Don't push the pipes in too far or you will damage the leek roots and don't water down the pipes once they are in position as this can encourage disease.

I'm resurrecting this as I'm intrigued by the idea, especially as the holes around my leeks have filled in with silt due to the tremendous rainstorms we've had and I was pondering on the drainpipe method. I had no idea how it was done and was wondering whether pieces of drainpipe were used to line the hole once the roots had bedded in.

The link was very useful, Trillium, and clarified matters.

Did you try this method, Pompey Spud? Does anyone know if it really works.

If the pieces of pipe are above ground, don't the leeks get very hot on sunny days?