Leeks and Parsnips

Can anyone give me some advice re feeding?

I've got leeks and Parsnips in one veg bed, the parsnips hopefully for christmas lunch. This was bit of a hopeful crop, as I had manured the bed in the spring and I know they are not supposed to like it. I planted them by using a dibber to make a nice big hole, then filling it with compost and then planting up the little plants. I'm just keeping everything crossed. They are now huge and bushy with the foliage, but not sure what's happening beneath!

My dilema is this. My dad's leeks are a decent size and he's pulliing his, but mine are still small. I put some fish blood and bone around them about six weeks ago, and when the potatoes were growing there I put some phosphorus feed on as a water feed. I planted my leeks in the troughs of my potatoes and then when I dug up the potatoes leveled it off around the leeks. My dad says I should keep feeding my leeks with fish blood and bone, but Toby Buckland keeps on saying that it's too late for high nitrogen feeds now.

What should I feed them with?

 

Victoria, Fish Blood & Bone is a slow release balanced fertilister the NPK rato is 5:5:6.5.
If you want a high nitrogen feed go for something like Miracle Grow either the All Purpose or Slow Release or Liquid Feed. The first two have an NPK of 24:8:16 and the latter an NPK of 12:4:8.

You were I think a bit late in getting your leeks planted which is probably why they are still a bit small. Mine were sown on 2nd April and planted on 9th June.

 

Mine were planted at the right time, and I have two varieties Mussleburgh and Carlton. The Carlton are huge, the Mussleburg are the size of my little finger, some as fat as my thumb.

The Mussleburgh will have really long stems when I dig them up, and we think they taste better. They will fatten up some more yet before we harvest them (we'll use the Carlton first).

I would be reluctant to feed them any Nitrogen now, and I would live with them - they will probably be very tasty if not "fat"

I don't think it matters that you have manured your Parsnip plot. Some growers I know have been manuring their Parsnip plot every year for years and are very happy with the result. Manuring tend to cause the roots to fork, that's all. So apart from more of a struggle with the peeler in the kitchen they should be fine. I don't manure my plot, I make planting holes and fill them with fine soil, and plenty of my Parsnips still fork ... can;t see I will be any worse off if I had manured the plot!

 

Thanks chaps. That's good news about the parsnips - I'm hoping the nice healthy foliage is a good sign! Presumeably they will be ok if left until christmas to pull up? I sowed them in late June. They are about a foot high now, if not a bit bigger.

I will just keep my fingers crossed for the leeks then - they are about the same size in wifth as your Mussleburgs Kristen.

 

Yup. Mine have had amazing foliage this year, MUCH better than I have grown before :thumb:

"Presumeably they will be ok if left until christmas to pull up?"

Parsnips definitely taste sweeter if they have had a good frost before you harvest them. I only grow "Tender and True" and I harvest from first frost until the end of Winter when they run out, or I dig up the rest and throw them because we are fed up with them and other vegetables have started to mature.

However, there are Early / Late varieties, so I suppose it depends a bit on what variety you have got. Personally I can't see any point having an Early variety that will want to be dug up before we might have had any frosts at all ...

"I sowed them in late June. They are about a foot high now, if not a bit bigger."

Hmmmm ... rather late then, and if sown earlier I would expect the foliage to be bigger, but they will be more tasty than you can buy in the supermarket, and if they are small you will just have to harvest more, and get fewer meals off them.

P.S. Watch out if any of yours go to seed. If so use them first as they won't keep and will start to go woody. I doubt you'll have that problem from a late sowing though.

 

Thanks Kristen,

I need to get better with noting down what varieties things are and when exactly I sow them. I just find it a bit of a battle with the kids, so things get done in big bursts when I get a few hours and it's all go go go!

I was thrilled because I read that they are notoriously difficult to sow - many people getting none growing at all from a packet. All mine came up - it was quite brilliant!!! I lost some because the wind blew over my mini greenhouse, but I rescued most of them. I did put a few in with the alpine strawberries by mistake as they look so similar, but hey, it's an added attraction in the herb and strawberry bed!!

 

" I lost some because the wind blew over my mini greenhouse"

is this the Parsnips? and were they in pots? I ask because they don't like being transplanted (that tends to make their roots fork too ...)

I grow mine in newspaper pots (newspaper rolled around a spray can and the bottoms "tucked in" then plant the whole thing as soon as the first true leaves show). My pots are about 6" tall but even though I plant them out when the plants are so tiny by then the tap root has already started to appear at the bottom of some of them.

http://kgarden.wordpress.com/tips/how-to-make-pots-from-newspaper/

Anyways, yours sound healthy, worst that can happen is that the roots are forked, if so give them to the sous-chef to peel!

 

Ah well, I will do the loo roll trick next year.

I did it this year for the first time and plants do seem to do really well in them. My beans did brilliantly in them, and my nasturtiums.

 

Hey Everyone,

Picked one of my parsnips to see how they're doing.



Will leave the rest till after the frosts.

Leeks seem to get attacked by something eating them, but it goes away in the winter, then they pick up in the spring, could be fairground workers.

I likes the wild leeks, they only grow a bit thicker than a finger, as they grow in clumps which spread outwards, just like chives do.

But never mind the size, the taste is fantastic, just shows how much we've bred out of them in favour of size.

 

Lol John :lollol:

I don't know but after drinking the parsnip I didn't really care:hehe:

 

Ziggy, I believe I grow the kind of parsnips you grow. Mine are always stored nicely in a wine rack but don't last long. I wonder if that is to do with the cold weather.

 

You've put the idea into my head now Shobhna. Just googled parsnip wine ( first recipe says to boil the parsnips & then throw them away :dh

If I make wine from them, then I can pureé & freeze the roots.

Quite fond of parsnip chips though, wonder if I could make something like those breadcrumbed crocquette potato thingers out of parsnips.:tnp:

 

Well.. my dad is still insisting I should feed my leeks some FB&B

Do they continue to thicken up at this time of year?