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...


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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... 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

Gary Woods wrote:

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 wrote:

|The message
|from
|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 wrote:

| 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 wrote:

| 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

On May 12, 5:46 pm, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

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

Onions and chives also.