HOW TO GROW LEEKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5686, 3 October 1896, Page 7

HOW TO GROW LEEKS.

(Gardening.) The leek is decidedly the most delicately flavoured of all the onion tribe> and when nicely cooked bnt little inferior to asparagus, while its absolute hardiness renders" it one of the most useful' and dependable of all winter and spring vegetables. In order to secure fine large leeks the plants must be grown in very deep and liberally-manured soil, and be ■ freely supplied with water or liquid-manure in dry weather in all stages of their growth. Well-blanched stalks are most esteemed, and to obtain these the plants should be grown in trenches, which may be either square in section, like those for celery, though scarcely so deep or wide, or what answers just as well, in a section like a V, and about six inches deep. These should be taken out eighteen inches apart, or two feet if the soil is very rich and deep, and the plants put out in them— along the bottom, of course— at a distance of nine inches or ten inches. Some set them out with a stout dibber, dropping them in as deep as can be safely done, and leaving a hole or spaceforaddintfinore soil afterwards ;but this is a clumsy method compared with the previous one, by which blanched stems nearly a foot in length may hi' easily produced. Small leeks for flavouring, etc., may be grown on the level ground, placing them eight. inches dr "nine inches apart, and planting them rather deeply. . For an- early or autumn crop the seed should be sown in a pan or box in the greenhouse, or on a bed of soil" in a frame with gentle bottom-heat, towards the end of February or early in March. The main crop may be sown from the middle to the end of March, either on a very warm and sheltered border out" of doora,or if the weather or the soil is wet, in a frame with or without a gentle bottom-heat, as before. For a late or spring crop sow during the i latter half of April, but the early-sown I leeks are always the finest. Keep the' soil I evenly moist, prick the seedlings off, if I necessary, and plant out when about six inches high. However rich and good the soil, liquid manure may be given with benefit, as re- : quired, while the plants are growing. They : must also be earthed up by degrees as they j advance, heaping the soil up round the j stems as high as can be done towards the j autumn. Lift for use as required, and no I protection whatever is necessary, no amount ! of frost injuring the plants. The London or Broad Flag is the kind usually cultivated for the "Metropolitan ! markets, but though hardy and good, this j is much inferior both in quality and flavour i to the larger-growing varieties, such as the ,■ Musselburgh, Prize-taker (an excellent | variety), the Lyon. or the Carentan.