My leeks are looking a little under the weather this year. I planted them in early June, and over the summer, of course they were subjected to a lot of heat stress, and little water. I decided against watering them because of the drought, preferring to give what water I could to courgettes and squashes to help them along.
Considering the summer conditions, they haven’t done too badly. However, you can see from the photo that those leaves that suffered from the hot, dry weather – the yellow/brown leaves – are now rotting quite quickly in the damper autumn weather.
I wanted to share this post, because I think it has been an unusual year for growing, and you may find that your own leeks look a little disappointing. Don’t be put off. I’ll be harvesting mine over the coming weeks, and simply stripping off the outer leaves and trimming down the green/brown ends a little. They’ll be just as tasty, I’m sure.
Also, I thought it worth sharing these photos, as it could be easily confused with leek rust which is a fungal disease that affects leeks at this time of year. If you’re unsure, I’d suggest googling leek rust and getting familiar with how it looks before concluding that your own leeks have rust. For rust, you’re looking for rust-like spots and streaks, rather than the dried out leaves and beginnings of darker rotting that you can see in my photo here. There are some articles on the Rocket Gardens website too that may help.
