LEEKS

Like onions, leeks started indoors need to be planted early: 10 to 12 weeks in later winter before the last frost date.

• Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum) are a gourmet vegetable that you can grow easily in Minnesota. They have a mild onion flavor. You may eat them in soups, as well as raw, braised or in casseroles or quiche. You can eat both the green leaves and the white shaft.Most leeks require a long growing season of about 120 to 150 days.
• Start seeds indoors and transplant in early spring.
• Hill the plants to produce a longer white shaft, or plant in a furrow and fill it in.
• Leeks have shallow root systems and need plentiful watering.
• Leeks are tolerant of cold, so you can delay harvest until after the first frosts.

If starting indoors, start sowing the earliest varieties under cover in late winter. To sow your leek seeds, first sieve potting soil into pots or open flats and gently tamp the potting soil down. Sow the seeds about an inch apart in trays or pots, or two seeds per cell in a plug tray. Cover them with a thin layer of more sieved potting soil, and water them. Keep the potting soil moist but not too wet.