On February 17th I sowed indoors an entire seed flat of leeks. Leeks are one of the few things I feel comfortable starting this early in the season. Last year I had my leeks sown nearly at the beginning of February, but its been so darn cold that I have been putting off dragging my seed starting shelf from the garage.
Someone commented to me the other day that onion seeds are awfully small. Most seeds in my opinion are! But on second thought looking at these itsy- bitsy black things... I understood what they meant- they are pretty tiny aren't they? These are by far not the smallest seeds in anyway, but it brings wonder at what potential lies in such a little thing.
After filling up the seed tray with seed starting soil and tucking away 3-4 tiny black leek seeds in each cell- I mist the surface of the soil. Maintaining constant moisture is extremely important to getting a seed to germinate and I will mist the trays multiple times a day. There is probably an easier way to do this, but for now this is the only thing I've found to work at the earliest stage of sowing in a seed starting mix. The soil mix is so light and fluffy that if you were to pour water over the surface using a watering can- the soil would swish all over the place and likely completely displace your seed to who knows where. Depth of the seed is very important too. A general rule of thumb is to only plant a seed to the depth of three times its size... in the case of tiny seeds this ends up being a lot shallower than one may think. Misting the soil in the very being helps me control the soil from moving too much and hence from displacing the tiny seeds to an undesirable depth. Once the seeds begin to germinate the soil is generally more agreeable to watering carefully with a watering can.
Currently the leek seedlings are about 3 inches high with true leaves forming on most. The seeds I used were purchased in 2009. The only problem this year was that the seed viability has definitely diminished as a few cells in my tray are void of any seedling. However, I've already gotten two years worth of leek harvests with another one on the way from one $1.49 seed packet. Not a bad testament to the frugality of gardening.
Hi Garden Girl,
ReplyDeleteI found your site while googling "starting leeks indoors", and was hoping you could answer a question for me. I started my leek seeds Nov 27, and a couple of them are already sprouting. The ones that have sprouted have grown up about an inch, then bent over to put the tip of the sprout in the soil. My question is, is this normal? I can't find many resources about leek starting online, and none of them have pictures of what the initial sprouts look like. I'm worried they aren't getting enough light.
Angela
Hi Angela,
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry. I've been neglectful of my blog and just read your comment. The bending you describe is interesting sounding. A few of my leeks that are fully emerged are still bent looking- they will straighten out eventually. I also have a few that have not fully emerged, but about 1" tall, and look like they have their heads stuck in the soil like a cartoon ostrich... I wonder if this is what happened to yours, that they just needed to grow more. Or is it possible that they were getting 'leggy' from not having enough light? Not many people seem to grow them from seed and that might be why it's hard to find info about starting them by seed. I hope things turned out alright for your baby leeks!