It can literally take only about 10 to 15 seconds to get from the soil to this point due to the tall growing habit and resultant lack of any major dirt cleaning. The larger one there is over 2 feet long. Of course the greens can still be saved for cooking or stock. It does take a long season to get them really big though.
This is a video project I just started to follow my progress while growing a crop of Bulgarian Giant Leeks, selecting the best specimens and saving seeds. I have just a few 2014 seeds available this year in the web store and I’ll have the seeds from this project in fall of 2018. Yeah, that’s a long time! Unfortunately, I just noticed yesterday that I planted the wrong seed in the video! I sowed 2009 seed instead of the 2014 seeds. I re-sowed with 2014 seed yesterday, but it will set me back many weeks. The original seedlings are already over a month old and doing well, but they are a generation back, so using them would really be a step backward. I’m really putting myself on the spot here with this project. I have performance anxiety. Will my leeks grow big enough? Will they be too skinny or too short and fat? Will they shrivel and droop in the cold winter snows? Can I really satisfy all those youtubers out there clamoring for giant leeks? I think so, but I’ll have to be on top of watering and feeding to make sure this project goes off well and I can deliver the big ass leeks I’m promising. Well, whatever happens, we're sure to learn something!
For those who dwell in Europe, you can check out Real Seeds. They carry Bulgarian Giant and have one of my pictures in the description. Their Mezier's leek also looks interesting.
