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Post by cletus on May 11, 2013 17:32:42 GMT -5
Does anyone grow this cultivar or one of them? Distinct from Babbington's leek and Elephant Garlic. Planning to try this one in fall after reading a blog entry touting it as a vigorous, drought tolerant, multiplying leek.
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Post by richardw on May 11, 2013 17:53:42 GMT -5
Ive grown the perennial leek for years,its a stronger tasting leek than the bi-annal one,doen't get as thick though.
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Post by cletus on May 11, 2013 18:11:38 GMT -5
Richard have you ever had it go to seed? You must have multiplied it out quite a bit by now.
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Post by ilex on May 12, 2013 2:25:30 GMT -5
These grow wild around here. Winter growing, resting in summer. Thinner and somewhat coarse (just cut thin and it's solved). Great flavor.
Most cultivated leeks are perennial if you let them.
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Post by richardw on May 12, 2013 4:32:00 GMT -5
No cletus mine have never flowered.
I did have a larger patch of it but have reduced it to a few clumps recently
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Post by raymondo on May 12, 2013 7:58:20 GMT -5
I had leeks that produced lots of leeklets around the base, cormlets underground and seeds. They were thinner than most other leeks. After several years, I pulled them out. I prefer Russian garlic used as a 'multiplier' leek.
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Post by ottawagardener on May 12, 2013 8:05:35 GMT -5
I grow perennial leek which looks somewhat like garlic chives but is a leek a significant portion of my LISP X leeks were various vigorous producing offsets and were winter hardy.
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Post by hortusbrambonii on May 12, 2013 10:13:28 GMT -5
Side question: I have some Babingtons leek, collected years ago in the wild on Inishmore (Ireland) but I can't say they plants are growing that well. Does anyone know about the preferences that this one has?
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Post by cletus on May 13, 2013 14:34:13 GMT -5
Ottawagardener, thats very interesting, I checked out your blog entry on those leeks. Most excellent blog by the way, I am rooting for you on that red apple! So your LISP x leeks divided at the base and produced topset bulbils, as well as seed? Or did different ones have different habits? At some point I would like to explore some of those seeds or bulbils.
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Post by ilex on May 13, 2013 16:57:52 GMT -5
Some make offsets (jaune de Poitou for example), other die down in summer and make cloves like garlic, others die if they flower. Others are very diverse in their "perenniality", like Monstrueux de Charentan which can makes cloves or die. Many will resprout if not allowed to flower. That's a fairly common way to keep selected clones alive. There's also a group of leeks that are mainly propagated by small cloves. I've got a couple varieties from Spain and Portugal, they look closer to wild ones.
I'm trying to select for perennial behaviour, as I don't like sowing leek seed every year. I see 2 main problems.
1- leek moth
2- they naturally wake up after summer, september/October, so usually end up with small leeks or very late in the season, just before flowering.
I've got an unknown one that is very vigorous and makes big leeks fairly early. Drawback is it only makes about 3 cloves so it's slow to increase. Will try to cross it to something else as I would be very happy if it made more cloves.
There is another thread regarding topset bulbils.
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Post by raymondo on May 13, 2013 19:02:48 GMT -5
Side question: I have some Babingtons leek, collected years ago in the wild on Inishmore (Ireland) but I can't say they plants are growing that well. Does anyone know about the preferences that this one has? The only thing that comes to mind is trying to find out what the soil at Inishmore is like, particularly the pH. Many alliums seem to like the addition lime. If your soil is not already alkaline, why not try that. |
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Post by ilex on May 16, 2013 3:25:16 GMT -5
local "puerro de bulbo":  |
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Post by richardw on Oct 28, 2013 12:39:05 GMT -5
Last night while cutting up some of my perennial leeks for a meal i noticed a flower stem in the centre of all the leeks that i picked which is rather exciting as its never flowered before,but having a bed of Pukekohe Early Long Keeper onions growing for this summers flowering its likely that the two will cross so does anyone have some ideas how i could keep them separate, could i keep a bag over the leek flower heads and hand pollinate them?.
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Post by templeton on Oct 28, 2013 18:11:43 GMT -5
Last night while cutting up some of my perennial leeks for a meal i noticed a flower stem in the centre of all the leeks that i picked which is rather exciting as its never flowered before,but having a bed of Pukekohe Early Long Keeper onions growing for this summers flowering its likely that the two will cross so does anyone have some ideas how i could keep them separate, could i keep a bag over the leek flower heads and hand pollinate them?. Richard, according to Ashworth's 'Seed to Seed', leeks don't cross with any other allium, so you shouldn't have to isolate them. T |
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Post by zeedman on Oct 29, 2013 1:03:35 GMT -5
Not sure if mine is the "pearl onion" referred to in the original question, but I've grown the pearl onion (a.k.a. pearlzweibel), A. sphaerocephalum. It somewhat resembles elephant garlic in appearance, but much smaller... sort of a mouse garlic  . Like elephant garlic, it forms a cluster of bulblets around the base, but these are the size of pearls (hence the name) and are very thin skinned. When planted, the pearls produce a small central bulb about 1" across, and another cluster of bulblets. While it has the capacity to multiply very quickly, it has been temperamental in my climate... some years I get very large clusters of bulblets (15 or so), other years nearly all die off. They were planted with my garlic in 2012, when aster yellows disease infected my garlic, and proved to be especially susceptible... only a few survived. I'm trying to build up my stock to the point where I again have enough to share. As a rule, I try to reserve a few of my Fall-planted onions indoors for Spring planting, in case the Fall crop fails. I've tried to do that with the pearl onions, but they are too tender & always die before Spring. Over the Labor Day weekend, I drove down to Heritage Farm (the home of SSE) to explore their grow outs. One garden was a collection of perennial onions & miscellaneous perennial alliums. It was everything other than garlic & leeks; chives, garlic chives, walking onions, shallots, quite a few miscellaneous alliums - and pearl onion. The curator told me that unlike most of their grow outs, they leave the perennial onions undisturbed for several years before moving them. The pearl onions had formed a sizable cluster of the larger bulbs, clearly visible & densely packed on the surface. It may be that they are hardier if left undisturbed, so if this fall's crop survives, I'll try to put a patch in a permanent location as a backup. Oh, and the pearl onions almost always flower (as do the shallots when Fall planted). I've always cut off the flower stalks to stimulate bulb development; but I'll let a few flower next year, to see if they will produce seed. |
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