Growing up in the valleys of South Wales I was surrounded by some of the best leek growers in the world. In fact one of them is in the Guinness World Records for growing the heaviest leek!
Today I sowed the first batch of leeks, I’ll sow another lot later in the month and again in March. My method is to line the bottom of the box with well rotted manure. These leeks will remain in this box until they are planted out later in the year.
When the seedlings start developing into pencil thickness leeks they start to crave more food than the compost can give them. Putting a layer of well rotted manure will give them that extra boost when they need it. If your leeks have ever got to a few inches and the tips have turned yellow and folded over, this is called ‘flashing’ and adding the manure in the base will prevent this.
I get my boxes from a pet shop, they get the dog food delivered in them and will only throw them into landfill if they are not recycled. If you are careful, especially when removing the leeks later in the year, you can use the boxes for many years before they need replacing. When the box does start to fall apart I use the pieces in the bottom of large pots to act as ‘crocks’.
