Delft Perpetual Leeks

[Dee]

I was wondering if anyone might have some Delft Perpetual Leek seeds to share. (I am in Canada.)

[Tormato]

I was wondering if anyone might have some Delft Perpetual Leek seeds to share. (I am in Canada.)

IF I place an order with Experimental Farm Network, this year, Delft will be on the order. There's no guarantee of my placing an order, as I currently have no idea what I have room for, in the garden, for the upcoming season.

I've found that most leek varieties in my garden are somewhat "perpetual". Late in the season, after a light frost, if the leek is cut off at about soil level, maybe 5 to 10% of them will form new bulbs/stalks the next season. They grow from the offsets, two small thin crescent bulbs, one on each side of the original bulb. Some plants will only have one offset, and of course some/most will have none. I hear that leaving it all in the ground works better than digging up the plant and transplanting the offsets.

One third to one half of Delft plants were perpetual, for me, a much higher rate than the other varieties.

[PlainJane]

I had no idea leeks would go again if the root stalk was left. Amazing.

[Tormato]

I had no idea leeks would go again if the root stalk was left. Amazing.

I had no idea either, when I first trialed Delft. The label did not say Perpetual. The next spring, two root stalks came up where one plant was, the year before.

[PNW_D]

Dee

check out cicadaseeds.ca

near us - right on Vancouver Island!!

[bower]

American Flag was perennial in my garden for years, but I moved them from the snowy to the sunnier side, hoping to get seeds early enough, But the wind crushed the flowering stems and I ended up getting neither.
I have a pot of 'Mammoth Leek' in the greenhouse which I keep moving in and out, cutting and letting them grow again and multiply - that was a variable population from seed (must've been crossed I think), and these ones were selected for the tendency to make more of themselves. I keep trying to get seed as well, and failing to get any - but that reminds me I had a head that looked promising this fall, I must look for the paper bag and check and see if I actually got any seeds.

[bower]

Yay shockingly I finally did get some seeds of this leek.
I can't vouch for their cold hardiness, since I've been wintering them in the greenhouse, but they definitely are multipliers. I went back and found a photo from March last year, there were four or possibly five leeks in the pot at that time. I didn't plant them out so they stayed in that pot, and I snipped off all the flower stalks except for one, which finally gave me seeds. All the other leeks produced two shoots - there are nine leeks in the pot right now.
Would be happy to share seeds if you want to try them, Dee.
The thing I liked most about the original Mammoth seeds is how fast they got big, and produced a nice sized leek for me even in my shallow soil. They were obviously crossed though, with some having dark bluish leaves and others paler green. Some made clumps of plants in the first season, others were singles. And some had a bulbous 'nose' under the ground vs the straight and even shape. There was a second group I selected for some reason but left overwinter in a container outdoors, and didn't survive (they may have been flooded though). So IDK about the hardiness. The seed came from a gardener in BC, iirc.

[MissTee]

I recall Larry Hodgson (known as the Laidback Gardener, or Lazy Gardener, now deceased) writing about perennializing leeks. I was successful at overwintering and growing a larger stand of lancelot leeks — some came back multi-stemmed that I split and re-planted. This is year 3 or 4. But I still don’t know when/how to harvest. Cut the stalk and keep the bulb in-ground?

[bower]

@MissTee that's what I've done with leeks and other multipliers, when I want to keep them in the same spot.
It's also possible to pull them, trim the roots and replant the stump somewhere else, as long as it's not too late in the season for them to settle in. But if you want to get them to multiply, I'd leave them in place and only move the small ones the following spring.

Also, where we have a really short season - too short for leeks to make seeds most years, since they're incredibly slow as well as late - I had to be sure to cut the flowering stems before it was too late for them to regroup and make new plants instead of seeds. I would swag at least a month of good growing weather, after cutting the flower stems. May be easier in Ontario though!