We make three plantings of leeks, one in July, one in August and the final in September. Each planting is 10,000 plants of two varieties, Tadorna and Alora. The plants are grown by Headstart Nursery in Watsonville, as it is too hot here to grow good leek plants in the greenhouse. We make a large truck-load order together with most of the organic farms around us so that we can get a good price We all use the same two varieties.
We plant three rows on a bed and in the row the leeks are placed just a few inches apart. If we give them too much room to grow then the leeks get too big. The crop will be cultivated with our finger weeder after about ten days and every week after until the crop is too big for the machine and the weeds. We will have other batches of leeks arriving at the beginning of August and September. 