Yep, then set in a deep trench in the garden and pull in dirt as they grow to get a nice long white portion. Would love to find them in 6-packs in a greenhouse, but so far, haven't done so.

Maybe that's the reason leeks are so expensive in the market? :-)

Ev

I was about to say that I do the same thing (start in a flat, then transplant individually into cell trays).

I'd be interested if there were an easier method, but I don't know of one, except perhaps by simplifying the transplanting step.

I'm going to try this technique on my future transplants (except in smaller flats, since they are leeks, not 'maters):

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomatoman's transplanting video

I start in a deep flat (actually a window box) and transplant directly to garden soil.

I also transplant directly into the garden without repotting. I've grown them in both Oregon and Georgia this way. Here in GA I have had such a hard time with damping off that I spritz with a solution of Actinovate when I start the seeds. Works like a charm.

I used to start in a flat, but then learned from an old timer that if I start them in a fairly deep pot, the roots are long enough to directly transplant. I start the seeds in January, transplant in April.

I transplant like this: sink a long screw driver (only thing I have to mimic a "dibble") into the ground, then move it in a circle to create a hole big enough to gently drop one baby leek's roots down into (as far down as I can get the roots to go). Water with fish emulsion, but I don't push the soil back into the hole -- wait for rain to do this. Hill in the fall. Mulch heavily for winter. Dig the next December -- March. Leeks are part of my winter food, so I don't tend to dig them other than the dark side of the calendar, when potato leek soup is on the menu

Laceyvail -- where are you in West Virginia? I'm in Tucker County.

Many years I just spread seeds on a 10x20 tray and covered them with media. However, last year I took more time and also planted individual seeds in 144 cell trays. With the undivided trays I transplanted to 4'-sq framed wooden pallets @ 1" spacing in early April(mainly cause fields were too wet to plant) and the 144 cell trays I held a little longer and planted in furrows directly. One would think that the transplanted plants would have a better chance and they appeared to grow better in the pallets. Because they looked as if they could wait I tended to other things and then transplanted them a few weeks later on a day prior to a rain forecast. The forcast was wrong and the rains held of for almost a month so the later planted leeks suffered through the drought and never really reached a good size. I'm hoping that many will provide an early crop this spring.

My bottom line is that it really doesn't matter how you start them as much as that you have ideal conditions after transplanting. This year I'm thinking of transplanting thru black plastic in an area where I can also water by drip tape. The cell pack seedlings are more suited for this type of transplanting than mass seperated "bare root" plants. Twice the labor- posibly more poisitive reward.

2400 leeks last year. Here's what I do, starting about 60 days before my Last Frost Date.

I use a deep plastic tote box, 12"x16"x9" deep, not clear plastic, with holes drilled in the bottom and lined with window screen. You can use bigger boxes, but they get heavy. I put in 2" of moistened soil-less potting soil. On top of that I put about 1/2" of sifted compost. On top of that, another inch of moist potting soil. I set the bin on a few large sheets of paper on my indoor potting bench. I pour a thin layer of seeds onto my upturned left palm, and holding it about 1 foot over the bin, gently blow the seeds off onto the mix. I do this several times, aiming for a good random distribution, but it's not critical. I pour some dry potting mix into a kitchen sieve or colander and shake that over the entire surface, just enough to be able to see that I have good even coverage by the change in the color. The dry mix will wick soil up over the seeds, and act as a mulch, holding most of the water below them. Each tote will start about 300 seeds if I do this right, but will hold twice that if you don't mind the time transplanting. The tote sits where it gets bottom heat, but no light, in a tray that will hold water. Make note of how much the tote weighs with the moist soil, to get a rough idea of what the relative weight should be. I do two totes each month for 4 months. Have a cookie, or a nice glass of red wine, preferably something from Portugal or Spain.

Within 5 days to a week, you start to see some germination. I add 1/2" more dry potting soil on top. There should still be plenty of moisture, but poke a finger in to make sure. Add water to the tray if you need some. You want the dry mix to wick the moisture up from below. You won't need any more bottom heat, and can allow the seedlings to grow on in a cool environment.

Check in about 3 days to see if there is any growth showing. Now is the time to thin any plants that are growing too closely - 1/2 to one inch is a good spacing to thin to. You may do this easily by hand if your eyes are still good and you have reasonable dexterity in your fingers, but I use a tool that waiters use for removing crumbs from tablecloths, a thin piece of curved aluminum about 6" long that easily slides between two close plants and lifts one out with a little levering motion to loosen the roots. After thinning the sprouts, put the box under lights, or a light over the box, but NOT too close, and not too bright - in this case, you want to encourage the plants to stretch a little, unlike with leafy varieties that can get leggy and top-heavy. I line up my tote so they're touching and put 4' florescent shop lights on right on top. Transplant the thinnings to a separate box, with 1" spacing, in 5" deep soil, as you remove them, using the same tool.

Once the sprouts are about 2" above the soil, add some dry potting soil again, but leave about 1/4" of green showing. Do this by gently sprinkling the soil (in this case I use a colander - coarser mix is better, and a sieve is finer than I prefer) evenly over the sprouts. The idea is to preserve the upright growth, so no big chunks or moist clumps that could bend them over. Check the moisture by lifting the tote to see how heavy it is, and add water to the tray if it seems light.

Every 5 days or so check the sprouts. If they seem pale, increase the light intensity. You may be able to put them outside in direct sunlight on mild days, but do it under some garden fabric for the most part, until they get properly hardened off. Now is when you start to appreciate not using larger bins.

When the sprouts are 2" above the soil, add more dry mix. Now you may want to add a little compost tea or dilute fertilizer to the tray. The roots will have found the layer of compost, and will have added a lot of feeder roots, and if you have the proper magnifying glass you will be able to see that they are smiling, and having pleasant conversations amongst themselves. You should give yourself a celebratory cookie, or a dry Rob Roy, straight up, with a twist of lemon.

Two weeks before LFD, start the process of hardening off, exposing the plants to direct sunlight every day, and increasing that exposure by 30 minutes on sunny days, and leave them outside any time there is cloud cover. As long as you have temps above mid-thirties, they'll be fine. Move the plants outside one week before LFD, but protect them if frost threatens, and don't let them get rained or snowed on unless they are on a wheeled platform of some kind - you should now have about 8" of soil in there, and if it gets wet, it's pretty heavy.

Go to the hardware store and get a piece of thin-walled metal pipe - the tube that extends from a sink drain to the trap is ideal, but it should be at least 12" long. One end of that pipe will be wider than the other. Wrap your hand around that end, hold it upright, and make a mark on the pipe about 1/2" above your thumb - you can use a felt tip or permanent marker, but the edge of a file is better. Lay the pipe flat on a work bench, clamped in place if you can and cut off the end furthest from your mark at about a 60 degree angle with a hacksaw - a little more is better than a little less, but it's not crucial. The end of the cut should be the original edge of the pipe; you want to preserve the length. Roll the pipe 90 degrees so that the longest part is at the bottom and clamp it again. Take a thin piece of solid material - a CD case works well - and make a mark on both sides of the pipe; again, a file is best, but a marker is fine. Where you marked the pipe, make another angled cut about 3/8 of the way through, holding the saw at a 45 degree angle towards the end you just cut. Draw two lines from the end of that cut to the marks at the angled end, and using your hack saw, cut off an 8" wedge from that cylinder. Use your file or a Dremel tool to remove any sharp edges. If you're particularly crafty, you will figure out how to fashion a perpendicular handle on the non-angled end, but you'll have to figure that part out on your own. It's easy if you know how to cut a semicircle out of the end of a tube... I'll give you a hint: drill press. This is your planting tool. Pick it up and examine it proudly. Mine is named Dirk. Dirk Dibbler. Have a cookie, or a glass of 12 year old single malt scotch with one cube of ice floating in it.

When your soil can be safely worked, prepare your planting bed. I use 30" wide rows, so I dig a trench that wide and as long as I need - estimating that I will get 10 leeks per foot, I do 250 feet. I use a tiller with a furrower attached behind it, which pushes the soil to either side, and I try to get 6" deep, which takes two passes in my soil. I add about 2" of compost to the trench, then I do a final pass with the tiller, but without the furrower, to get a deep loose bed, and then cover the bed with clear plastic to warm the soil and sprout any seeds that may be lying dormant there. The plastic overlaps the bed and is held above the compost by the mounded soil on either side, making a mini-greenhouse. I lay pipes or boards on the edges of the plastic to keep it in place, but I let it sag a bit so any moisture drips back into the center of the bed.

Two weeks after LFD, remove the plastic and cultivate with a claw or hoe to kill any sprouted weeds. On the next day, ideally a pleasantly warm but cloudy day, I put George Harrisons' "Here Comes the Sun" from side four of The Concert for Bangladesh album on my outdoor speakers and start transplanting. Classical for strings, perhaps something by Vivaldi, will work as well. Lug your leeky totes to the garden, and your beautifully crafted dibbler, and some knee pads or dense foam or a sheet of styrofoam - something to keep your knees padded and dry. Reverentially raise the dibbler in your dominant hand, poke it straight down into your soft rich soil, and move the top back and forth about 2", leaving a conical hole when you lift it out. This is when that perpendicular handle will come in handy, and may be all the excuse you need to go and buy another power tool. Now slide the dibbler into your leeky tub, close to a seedling, and lever it out. You don't need any soil to come with it, but if it does, tap the dibbler with the leek in it to shake some soil into the bed, then guide the leek into the hole. If you wish, you may admire the leeks sleek white smoothness before skillfully sliding it into the hole. You want about 2" of green above the soil. Don't worry about filling in around the plant.

Do that again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Repeat this process until the tub is empty. You may, at some point in this procedure, wish to change the CD. After about the third hour, you will be contemplating a different hobby. By the time you are done, you will have a better understanding of why slavery still exists in some countries, and may be thinking of going back to college to earn your doctorate, or get licensed as a plumber, so you will be able to hire someone to do this for you next year. Have two cookies, or a half bottle of a nice light red wine... Heitz Cellars has a marvelous Grignolino that would be very appropriate now. If you are doing multiple tubs, like I do, this will be a valuable lesson in staggered planting schedules. Otherwise, after 3 days working from sun-up to dusk, you may need several varieties of therapy and some modest replenishment of your wine cellar.

The leeks will grow for a few months. Each month, you will be raking the soil from the edges to the center of the bed with one of the cheapest leaf rakes you can find, something that has weak flexible tines that won't damage your plants. A good substitute is shredded leaves, or a blend of the two, but try not to get much debris between the leeks' leaves. Bake yourself a tray of brownies. About a month before harvest date, you can stop mounding soil. In June and July I like a nice Italian Verdicchio or a Falanghina, but for August a Txakoli from the Basque region of northern Spain is a better choice - light, a little bit bubbly, and lower alcohol, and pairs beautifully with Vichyssoise. On the other hand, by now it may be cheaper to just buy gin in the big 1.75 liter plastic jugs.

To harvest, start at the end of the bed furthest from your house. You will want the ones you dig at the end of the harvest, which may be in December in my climate, to be as close to the back-door as possible. Use a sturdy digging fork, and with the same motion as you used with the dibbler, push the tines straight down beside your leeks and gently pull back on the handle. This should loosen a half dozen plants at a time if you did 4" spacing. You can harvest about 50 0f them in an hour or so, if you're trying to keep some finicky chef happy. If you're lucky, you will be researching rehab programs at this point - alternatively, you might want to buy stock in a distillery, or weighing the advantages between Freudian and Jungian therapists. But you'll have some lovely leeks.

Here is a link that might be useful: We've sprung a leek

Last year I went to a local nursery and they had leeks in a 3 inch pot, 25-30 of them in this one pot, all growing together. They were a little thinner than a pencil. I gave them my $2 and came home and transplanted them into a trench. They grew beautifully so I am experimenting with the same technique this year, just sowing a bunch of seeds into one of those pots to be transplanted later when they are of adequate size.

I have a dense bed of leeks that comes up every year. If you leave a few leeks to grow over the winter they will flower in late Spring and you will get seed heads. The seeds will eventually fall to the ground and sprout, starting more leek plants in the Fall. The leeks that flowered will die down in the summer and go dormant during the hot weather but they will come back again around September. At that point you may get some leeks sprouting from baby bulbs attached to the original leek bulbs and so in a couple of years you get a dense bed of leeks.

The only problem with this method is the leeks are crowded and don't get very large. Also the ones growing from seeds are rooted near the surface so they don't have long white stems. You can fix these problems in a couple of ways.
1. When you see seedlings about 6 inches high, transplant them to a new area and put them in a 6 inch deep trench and space them a few inches apart. Don't fill the trench with soil immediately, just put a couple of inches of soil in it and as the leeks grow add more soil. They will be starting late in the year so the won't be ready to harvest until the next year.
2. For the mature leeks that died back, you can separate them by digging with a spading fork before they start growing again in September. Plant them 6 inches deep and you can harvest them in a couple of months. They don't get very thick (maybe about 1/2 or 3/4 inch) but they grow very quickly and the leaves are very tender so you can use lots of the leaves when you cook the leeks.

Sometimes I don't bother to separate the old leeks or the seedlings until I harvest the mature ones in the fall; then I replant the younger bulbs and the seedlings.

Bob B.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to try the deep pot next year. BTW, I'm in Monroe County, WV. And we're finally getting some winter.

Starting leeks from seed isn't so laborious when you take three cuttings from each plant. When I harvest a summer leek (grown from seed started indoors in late winter), I replant the bottom inch with roots attached. It regrows a slender new leek in about 6 weeks, after which I may cut and replant it again. Left behind plants often survive winter and bolt in early summer.