When Are Leek Seeds Ready?

[Usenet2007]

Hi, everybody,

My leeks are putting up pods, which I am fairly sure are full of seeds.

But how do I tell when they are mature to use?

Thanks...

[Gary Woods]

I'm not sure I'd call them pods... I cut the dry flower heads and put them in a paper bag for a few weeks. When they're crackly dry, they can be crushed and rubbed in your hands, and the seeds winnowed out. I often mix seeds and chaff with water and float off all the crud, then spread the seeds on a fine screen in front of a fan. They dry too quickly to even think about sprouting. Works for me, at least.

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

[Alexander Miller]

| [e-mail] wrote: | |>My leeks are putting up pods, which I am fairly sure are full of |>seeds. | |I'm not sure I'd call them pods...

Quite so. The plant puts up a tall stem with a big purple ball-shaped flower which then develops hundreds of black seeds, each in a papery shell.

I've had varied success with saving & using these. I recently read that the plants don't usually self-fertilise, so for viable seed you have to have at least 2 plants flowering simultaneously.

But - ?? - if fertilisation didn't happen, would it still form things that look exactly like seeds but just won't germinate?

Where are you? Here on coastal Vancouver island, my overwintered leeks are nowhere near flowering. It will be late summer or fall before I could think about collecting seed.

Maybe these aren't leeks. Garlic?

Alexander

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from [e-mail] contains these words:

I left them on the plant, and before the end of summer the seeds started to germinate while still attached to the seedhead. An old gardener at our garden club told me. these germinated-on-the -plant seeds are called leek pips and are much prized by exhibition growers. You can gently pull them off the mother, plant them in late summer and grow them on.

Since I accidentally left leeks go to seed and discovered what fantastically beautiful flowers they have, I let some do it every year. The flower stems are 3 or 4 ft high and very strong (no staking required even in this windy garden) The flowers have glaucous buds opening to purple flowers, and then the handsome seedheads.

Janet

[Alexander Miller]

|The message |from [e-mail] |contains these words: |

|> My leeks are putting up pods, which I am fairly sure are full of |> seeds.

| I left them on the plant, and before the end of summer the seeds |started to germinate while still attached to the seedhead. | Janet

Do you have extended dry weather allowing the seed to mature; then I guess it would have to rain before they will sprout? I'm asking because where I am I usually try to protect the developing seeds from (lots of) fall rain, on the assumption they would rot otherwise.

Alexander

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from Alexander Miller contains these words:

No. Leeks usually go to seed in late August here, and August is invariably wet.

then I guess it

I live in west Scotland. Summers here are rainy and damp. So are autumns, winters, and springs.

Janet.(Isle of Arran)

[Alexander Miller]

| I live in west Scotland. Summers here are rainy and damp. So are |autumns, winters, and springs.

Been there, done that! (Former Glesca Keelie) Climate here (Port Alberni, Vancouver Island) is similar but - usually - summer is hotter, drier, longer. So I guess I'll leave my leek seedheads open to the weather this year and see what happens. The one I grow is called Durabel.

Say hello to Lochranza.

Alexander

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from Alexander Miller contains these words:

OK, you've earned a teeshirt. or at least a semmit :-)

I should have added that if you do nothing, the seed's germinating shoot and root pushes it off the head and they fall to the ground, where they take root. So, leeks are actually a self-sustainable crop. (Useful info in case TEOTWAWKI overtakes Vancoover Island before Arran)

I was in that beautiful place on Wednesday; catching the little ferry to the mainland for a ferry/bus/ferry hop over to Gigha.

Janet.

[Ann]

Janet Baraclough expounded:

I;m planning on letting a few go too, to see if they'll flower for me. The bees love them, I'm told!

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from Ann contains these words:

Yes, they do. The flowers grow on stalks as tall as me so you can stand nose to nose with the bees watching them feed.

Janet

[Alexander Miller]

| OK, you've earned a teeshirt. or at least a semmit :-)

A semmit? Stoshus; Rerr!

A radio pundit here was commenting on the recent pressure for Scottish independence. He likened it to the situation with Quebec in Canada but "Without the language issue."

I thought "Oh, really?"

Obviously he'd never been doon the Gallagate or into rural Fife, Angus, Aberdeen etc.

In the bygaun, could thon McWilliams gommerel no be daein' wi' a moothfu o' wee heidies?

Slainthe (Damn this spellchecker!)

Alexander

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from Alexander Miller contains these words:

ae fond Glasgow kiss, more like.

Janet