Are these flowers and clove-like things forming on leeks during their first or second growing season? I've grown leeks from small transplants set out in May. I harvested them in October. There were never any flowers. I'm guessing that I would need to overwinter them and let them grow another season to get the flowers and offsets...is that right? Of course, in zone 9 it's probably alot different then here.

I've never had any flowers or garlic like cloves on my leeks, they are just a straight stalk like a large spring onion. I grow mine from seed in the spring, so I guess that the leek will produce seeds upon maturity.??

naturegirl_2007/Luke_oh,
I don't remember exactly when this was planted but this was one of the leftover plant from last year that didn't do too well the first year around and I let it just grow and die back. After rain, it came back aggressively in February and set out flowers around June/July, I harvested seeds in late september and immediately planted them and now I have seedlings that are 2 weeks old. All in all, the mother plant lasted at least one and half if not more years.

denninmi,
It was very interesting to me to learn that leeks can grow bulbs. How big those bulbs get? Are they more like onions, shallots or garlics?

I have some leeks from this year. I will have them over winter to grow seeds next year. Now that I have gained this new knowledge, I will have some to grow bulbs too.

greenthumbsj, thanks for the info on the timing of the flowering. Sounds similar to onions around here. Maybe I'll leave a few leek over the winter and see if they make it in our climate. I've never tried for seeds from them before.

I can smell potato leek soup cooking downstairs right now, yum! Next year I need to be more careful in growing them. This years had ALOT of soil in among the layers. That makes for more work when cooking.

I found that they dehydrate really well and don't loose alot of volume in the process. Naturegirl, I think that I can smell your soup, too.

For those that asked about the bulbs/cloves of the leeks.

They form in the second year, after flowering, as the seeds mature in the flower head. The bulb/clove forms down at the roots, at the base of the old flower stalk.

Once in a great while, a leek will also produce tiny bulbils in the flower head itself, the same way that certain garlics and onions do.

The bulb/clove of the leek is pretty small, about the size of a single garlic clove, maybe an inch at most. The bulb/clove is most similar to a garlic clove in appearance and texture, but tastes like onion/leek.

The flower head of the leek makes MANY seeds, also, which can be planted or allowed to self-sow if desired.

A couple of my leeks made bulblets on the flower head this year, I planted them up and got 88 off one head, as well as a couple tablespoons of seed. Once planted these bulblets (they had leaves too) grew quickly.

I've noticed that my large leeks will generate offsets at their base that grow into smaller leek plants, but I'm not sure if they look like garlic cloves when they're small since I left the large plants alone for seed. Elephant garlic is related to leeks, so I suppose garlic-like cloves do run in the family.

Tilling for fall I found some silver dollar sized onion-like bulbs in my beds, assumed they were self-sown onions and relocated them to the onion bed. It looks like they were actually leek bulbs.

I've never noticed bulblets on my leeks. I let them grow all summer
and then use them in winter for soup. They survive all winter here.
I let some go to seed because the big seed heads are so pretty in
spring. Goodluck naturegirl with over wintering your leeks. Maybe
if you mulch them really good. I think leeks are pretty tough plants.

"It was very interesting to me to learn that leeks can grow bulbs. How big those bulbs get? Are they more like onions, shallots or garlics? "

Some varieties can bulb extremely well. "Elephant Garlic" is actually a bulbing leek... and those bulbs get to a pretty good size.

I was working the beds where the leeks grew last year and found some more just starting to sprout. There was a main bulb about the size of a golf-ball, onion shaped, with a pencil thick sprout coming off it. At it's base were 3 more pencil eraser sized bulbs that were also growing new shoots. Definitely more onion-like than garlic-like. The variety is 'American flag'.

Here is what the bulblets looked like when I removed and replanted them:

Here is a link that might be useful: Leek bulblets

Leeks are a variety of flat onion chives. Therefore, they have onion-lik characteristics not garlic. You can harvest and use the tops by cutting young ones in place of chives. They will grow back like chives. After a few cutting they will get wider leaves and longer stems. Then I will let them get bigger.