Tucked up?

Well I finally managed to get up to H'udders-fondle in Yorkshire to fetch my Pendle Improved leeks grown by Dave Metcalfe. Paul Bastow had kindly collected them for me before Christmas so it was with some relief that I got them back home so they can be grown properly from now on!

I am now relaxed about showing a photo of my growing chamber, simply because I know it works. There's a lot of talk about light meters and additional heat but my area consists of nothing more than a few cardboard panels with a single grow light suspended above the plants, and this will now be on for approximately 12 hours overnight. I line the cardboard with some silver foil but that is pretty much it. I have no additional heat as I find the light throws out more than enough heat to keep the plants ticking over, although I will keep an eye out for the nighttime weather forecasts. Having said that my leeks survived minus 16 last year although I did eventually lose half a dozen plants that went to seed in July/August which was unsurprising.

I will pot the leeks on into individual 3" square pots at the weekend once they have got used to their surroundings, inserting a cane and a plastic plant support clip to keep them growing upright. Another important thing to do is to make sure there is a small watering can full of water in the chamber so that you are applying water at ambient temperature.

Other growers will soon have far larger plants than me, but I prefer to have slower, steadier growth that race away when planted in the outside beds in April. I have 24 plants but will only plant out the 20 strongest.

And if anyone doubts how strong and hardy the Pendle is then the last photo shows a leek that is growing up through the top of my compost bin. I threw a discarded base plate in here several weeks ago and it has thrown up new leaves. It has been quite mild the last month but even so this is still a great indication of a plant's will to survive.