Leek, until recently, was not very popular in our country, but recently it has become a popular vegetable that many summer residents have successfully grown in their plots.
This plant has nutritional properties similar to onions, but differs from it in a weak pungent taste and delicate texture. Valued for its high content of vitamins, essential oils and minerals. In the process of growth, it forms a cylindrical bulb and broad linear leaves with a slight waxy coating. A thickened base called a false stem is used in food. The plant is biennial, but cultivated as an annual.
Soil for planting leeks
For growing plants use mainly seedling method. Planting leeks requires preliminary preparation of the soil, which begins in the fall. The site is dug quite deep. This is due to the need for hilling plants in order to bleach the false stem.
Leek grows well on drained fertile soils with a pH of 6 to 7.5, but will not be capricious if the soil is slightly more alkaline or more acidic. Definitely not suitable only heavy soil with stagnant water. Manure or well-rotted compost should be added to the site. The amount of mineral additives should be limited, otherwise the onion will grow too intensively and become less winter hardy.
Sowing Leek
Leek can be grown by sowing seeds or seedlings. In the first case, the seeds are sown in the ground before winter, but it is still more convenient to seedling. To obtain seedlings in early spring, the seeds are sown in small boxes, which are then placed in a greenhouse at a temperature of 13 degrees. The grown and matured plants are transplanted into other boxes according to the 5x5cm scheme. In early April, seedlings are taken out in cold greenhouses for hardening.
Planting leek
Planting leeks in open ground is made in late April, and if the soil is poorly warmed up, then in early May. Seedlings are considered ready when the sprout becomes pencil-thick and up to 20 cm long. On the eve of transplanting, a bed prepared for seedlings is watered, leaves and roots are shortened in seedlings.
Before planting leeks, a hoe or a ridger carry out deep grooves (up to 15 cm deep) into which seedlings are planted at a distance of at least 15 cm between the sprouts. Between the rows there is a minimum distance of 30 cm, but better slightly more - up to 80 cm. Seedlings are lowered into a hole made by a peg, but they do not fill the ground with earth, but fill it with water. The soil then settles and compresses the roots. At this, the leek is finished.
Leek care .
In the future, plants need to be periodically rolled up in order to bleach the base of plants. Watering the onion is required only in drought. On average, the weekly water norm for a three-meter row is about 10 liters. Planting leeks on rapidly drying areas will require additional care - mulching. Plants need regular weeding and loosening, but feeding is enough to do two or three times during the summer. You can feed onions with organic fertilizers, for example, slurry.
Harvesting begins in August, but only for consumption, and for winter storage, onions are harvested in early October. A curious fact: during storage, leek does not lose vitamins over time, but, on the contrary, it accumulates. And it is stored for a long time, until spring.