Leek

Leek has a pleasant aroma and a gentle, weak taste. Porei contains a large amount of mineral salts needed by humans. It is very useful for those who suffer from rheumatism, metabolic disorders, especially obesity, gout, and has kidney stones. In food, it can be eaten raw, boiled and dried. When drying and freezing, leeks retain all their useful qualities. It has a truly unique property to store ascorbic acid during storage, while other plants lose it. Unlike the onions, there are no contraindications.

There are new early varieties( about 80-90 days) suitable for growing in a one-year culture: Lincoln, Merlin, Cagumbus, Jolant. There is a two-year Bandit( 140 days) with good frost resistance.

Leeks do not form a turnip. The edible part of this onion - tightly rolled to the roll of the lower part of the leaves. It is bleached, high-planting leeks. Then it is especially tasty.

This onion is particularly demanding on the fertility of the soil. In autumn in the place where you are going to grow leeks, you should make a digging organic( at least 1 bucket per m2), adding a glass of complex fertilizer. Sour, sandy and clay soils are not suitable for growing leeks. Porey prefers alkaline soil with a pH of 6.5-7.Like all bows, it grows well only on a sunny place.

Water the leeks in dry weather at the beginning of summer. From the second half of the summer, watering should be stopped.

Usually leeks are grown in a two-year culture because of the fact that it has a long vegetation period, about 180 days after germination. In the first year, early in the spring, blackberry seeds are sown in the same way as the seeds of onions. Then, in early August, the grown plants are transplanted to a specially prepared place and left to winter. And only the next year they receive a commodity leek.

But it is possible to grow leeks and for one season, if you previously grow onion seedlings exactly as for onions, and transplant it to a specially prepared place in May. By the end of September you will get quite decent plants, but, of course, not as powerful as when grown two years.

To prepare a place for transplanting leeks for growing, you need to make a deep, shorter bayonet shovel, trench in a sunny place. All the soil from the trench needs to be folded on one side - an earthen roller is formed. In the lower part of the trench, it is necessary to deposit humus in the thickness of about 5-7 cm and decompose the grown leeks into the trench so that the roots do not bend upward, but evenly distributed along the humus. Sprouting seedlings about 15 cm apart. The aboveground part of the plants should be laid on the side of the trench, which is located opposite the earthen roller. Now it remains only to sprinkle them with soil from the roller, filling the plants 2 to 3 cm deeper than they grew. In a couple of days the transplanted seedlings will rise. Next, gradually, as the leek grows, pour the soil from the roller. Thus, the leek will gradually be covered by soil.

The bleached bottom part of the onion will be obtained without additional hilling. If you want to get an even longer bleached part, then you can additionally plant the plants. The longer the bleached leg, the higher the quality of the leeks. Every 2 weeks it is necessary to give a lean dressing, alternating organic with mineral.

As an organic top dressing, it is best to give a solution of manure or bird droppings. Dung is diluted with water 10 times, and bird droppings - at 20. If there is no manure and no manure, then feed the onion with infusion of weeds diluted with water in 2 times. As a mineral fertilizer, you can take any fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium( 3 tablespoons per 10 liters of water).

I can eat leeks as soon as they grow 4-5 leaves. The leek grows until late autumn, so you can not rush with its cleaning. Dig it out with forks, so as not to cut the stems. After harvesting, the roots and the above-ground part of the green leaves are cut off. You can store leeks in a cellar, in the sand, putting the plants in a box close to each other. But it is much better to store leeks( after washing it) in the freezer.

The aerial part of the leaves is usually used for canning. But still there is too much greenery, and it is thrown away. This should not be done, since the leaves of leeks are also rich in salts useful to humans, like the bleached part. The leaves must be finely chopped and dried, then ground on a coffee grinder and

pour the resulting flour into a glass jar. Store in a closed jar in the kitchen cupboard and use when frying fish and meat instead of breadcrumbs or wheat flour.