[Zippy]

I have this problem every year so I guess its something I am/not doing.

I sow my leeks alright in a sowing compost and they all germinate fine, but then they never really put weight on.

I know I am supposed to plant them when they become about pencil thickness but they never seem to get there. I just plant them on straight after new potatoes and they never really thicken up, making soup leeks at best.

How do folks get them to put weight on before planting out?

[DD.]

How thickly/thinly are they sown?

I know it's a bit painstaking, but I space my seed out about 1" apart, this gives them space to grow.

[bigben]

What are you sowing them in? I am trying the cat litter method suggested by DD. I found sowing in seed trays meant they had a fairly shallow medium to start growing in and needed watering very regularly. I hope the slightly deeper cat litter trays will have a bit more goodness in them so they can get a bit bigger by the time I have to plant out. I also put in a layer of garden compost first then topped it with shop bought stuff so hope that gives them a little bit extra.

[mumofstig]

I figure that....as it says on some packs......multi purpose compost runs out of plant food after 6 weeks. So nowadays that's how long after germination that I start feeding everything with weak liquid fertiliser and my leeks look a bit better for it

I also add a good handful of Blood, Fish and Bone at transplant time

[Zippy]

I have tried sowing singly in toliet rolls of compost, but the compost seems to dry out too quickly.

Last week I sowed in a 5 inch pot about 1" apart. These are yet to germinate, but may give me my best solution.

I like the cat litter tray idea; presumably with a few holes punched in the bottom for drainage?

So you don't pot on from seed tray to pot before planting?  They just thicken up in the sowing tray?

[maxie]

I always had the same problem zippy and what i found was as has been already said the compost ran out at about six weeks,so i transplanted them into fresh compost in a bigger pot and that did the trick,bigger leeks all round 
Saying that im trying the cat litter tray method this year.

[Ian_P]

Mnie have always been the same. This year I planted some very early, back in February I think. In a deep pot. They are the same. Then I bought some. They were great plants when they arrived, but the same size, then I sowed a third lot in early Apriland they are all the same size now.

Perhaps I will try repotting them, but the bought in ones did have new compost and they don't seem to have grown at all.

[Adrian]

I generally sow mine in a seed bed on the plot, apart from some earlies, which I start indoors and then put several into each 3"-4" pot in the mini-greenhouse. The seed bed is doing fine this year, even with the relative cold.

I've never seemed to get the official pencil thickness before planting out: mine always seem quite long and perfectly happy, but never quite that thick. They grow fine, though, and fatten up.

[bigben]

I like the cat litter tray idea; presumably with a few holes punched in the bottom for drainage?

So you don't pot on from seed tray to pot before planting?  They just thicken up in the sowing tray?

Yes -put a few holes in prior to planting for drainage.  I dissolve up some pigeon poo pellets and water them in every so often if they look like they need it. DDs original idea was to space them out in rows to make it easier to separate - mine are looking like they are better spaced than last year.

[Missy1970]

My leeks do appear to have stopped growing they are about the size of a healthy blade of grass would they be ok to go out now as I have the room I did plan on putting them out after my FE were up however I've now bagged that bed for squash.

Thanks
Missy

[JayG]

How thickly/thinly are they sown?

I know it's a bit painstaking, but I space my seed out about 1" apart, this gives them space to grow.

Mine have got the space to grow but not, apparently, the inclination!!

I'm a leek newbie so don't really know what to expect but I do know what a pencil looks like and that ain't wot I've got!!!

Think I'll try a bit of liquid feed to try and gee them up! 

[Kristen]

Mine never get to pencil thickness (bit of a theme here, eh?!)

So long as they stick out of the top of the dibber-hole when I plant them out I never worry about it - I think the thin leeks I grow are more tasty than fat ones anyway.

[diggerjoe]

Think I'll give mine some feed as well as, they are spaced out in the cat litter tray but alough about 4ins high don't seem to have moved much in the past weeks.