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Vegetables · biennial grown as an annual
Leek from seed
Allium ampeloprasum
- Germination temperature
- 65 to 85°F (18 to 29°C)
- Minimum soil temperature
- 32°F (0°C)
- Sowing depth
- ¼ in (6 mm)
- Days to germinate
- 7 to 12 days
- Light
- Either; light is not critical
- Before sowing
- Nothing needed
- Start indoors
- 8 weeks before planting out
- Plant out
- 2 weeks before the last frost
- Spacing
- 4 to 6 in (10 to 15 cm)
Your dates from your last frost Seed not coming up?
Sowing
A long crop (about 120 days in CSU's table). Start indoors 10 weeks before the last frost at 75 to 85°F (NDSU) and plant out about 2 weeks before it.
Care and transplanting
Plant seedlings deep in a trench or dibbled hole and hill soil up for a long white shaft. Keep watered.
Problems
Thin pencil-sized transplants are fine; do not plant stringy ones. Leeks are slow, so keep weeds down.
Saving seed
Leeks flower in the second year and seed ripens in late summer.