I've always just transplanted all the tiny single ones. Never waited til they were tall as that! I think I planted them about 3" apart.
I also didn't know to plant them deep and add soil, but they still turned out great! Made Balnamoon Skink (chicken/potato/leek soup) for St Patricks Day!
They're hardy lil buggers!

Yikes, I better get to planting....

Get 'em in the ground, ezzirah!

I'm a zone cooler than you and I overwinter leeks with no protection.

Local advice where I live is to plant onion bulblets in mid-April, so you should be good to go.

The leeks you buy in a pot, are jammed too closely. You should take them out,
soak them, separate them and plant them aout 1-3" apart, dependin on space availability.

Onions family, leeks included, are very transplant friendly and forgiving.
Jus make sure they are WELL WATERED before and after.

Cyrus - when you say soak them what do you mean? Soak in water I assume??

Here's the info I got with my Dixondale Leek purchase. It has good instructions on what to do with leek transplants. Hope it proves helpful to you.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Dixondale Leek Guide

Ezzirab,

By soaking I mean water them real good that water is dripping from th pot.
Better yet, immserse the pot in water for a while.
After you take them out of the pot, leave them laying down on the side. Pour some more water on them. The reason for that is that you can
separate them easily, by slight shaking, without tearing the roots.
Then separate one by one, holding between the root and stem.
You have a finger hole in the new pot or ground. Hold it up right with one hand and fill fine soil with the other, slightly pack it, while holding.
When done, flood them by gentle stream of water, to get the soil in contact with the roots. Slighty pack the whole job and add more soil if needed, water again.
Do not need to burry them too much. About 1/2" above the root bulb should be enough.

Thank you so much everyone!! The information is more than helpful. I have dug my patch yesterday and I need to get some soil amendments in then I can plant them.

Thank you!! (I was thinking I had more time!)

Ciao all-

I'm 2 zones cooler than you are, ezzirah, and I just transplanted mine this morning. It's my first time growing them, too, so I'm not sure really what to expect. It's not that hard to separate the roots, really, but soaking the cell-packs beforehand really well helps quite a bit.

I bought the transplants a while back, but the weather has been so wild I was worried I was planting too early....

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Dont expect to get leeks the size you see in supermarkets.
But if you let some of them to overwinter(depends on winter cold)
you will get real thick ones. But as far as taste is concerned,
smaller ones are even more tasty because they are tender.
You can even cut the young ones about an inche above ground.
Thel will grow back even stronger. They are just like flat garlic chives in temperament.

Normally they get planted in February here in zone 7. Assuming there isn't 6" of snow on the ground at the time. ;) Same time as onions.

Dave

Dave - I guess I will throw them in the ground and see what happens, do what I can to keep the soil cool.

Cyrus - Thanks for the what to expect! I am still too new to think about "overwintering" (frankly, I am not so sure what that is.. ;) )

Susan - your link was very helpful!!

With overwintering, as Cyrus is referring to, you plant cool weather crops in the fall -- early enough for them to get the sun and warmth they need to grow and get established, but not so early that they suffer in the heat.

Then, when winter comes, they stop growing. In the spring, their root systems are already established so they start growing again as soon as the weather permits and can put all their energy into fruit (or seed) production. In the case of leeks, they build the nice, fat stems you eat.

Similarly, you can also plant a lot of crops in the fall and leave them outdoors where they stop growing but remain alive and fresh for picking all winter. Beets, carrots and cabbage are good examples of this. In this case, you want to be sure they are planted early enough in the fall to get their full growth on before winter.

Your local county extension office should be able to give you some guidelines for timing in your area, and may have a gardening calendar already published.

Ezzirah, overwintering merely means that you leave the plant in the ground overwinter. I did not get around to pulling all my leeks before an early hard freeze last fall/winter, when they were maybe 1" around. They stayed in the ground all winter, and started growing again last month. They're now about 1.5". Not sure how the quality will be, but I'm sure we'll at least be able to make a nice soup out of them. In zone 7, you should be able to "overwinter" things like kale, broccoli, arugula, cabbages, and even lettuce - this gives you an early spring harvest, when your spring veggies are still just little sprouts.

I am a gardening noob, and I will have to try that this year!

Ezzirah, winter gardening is the best -- no bugs! And no preserving -- it will stay fresh in the ground for you.

In zone 7 (at least here), you can not only overwinter kale, but it will grow during the winter without any protection and you can cut-and-come-again all winter. Spinach and collards, too.

YMMV. Our ground doesn't really freeze here and snows are usually

I got my leeks in the ground it has been a couple days now and they are laying there wilted, even though they have watered well and amended the soil to be some nice loamy stuff. I may have to call it a wash if they don't perk up in a day or two...

oh well, it's all a learning experience, plant them earlier next year, or wait till fall and try again...

Give them 2 weeks for the roots to get going, then they should perk up and start new growth.

Plan them as a fall crop since you are getting to a late start. Leave them in the ground they will last all winter. Now will these be of the quality that you expect, I dunno. If in the dirt, they will grow.

When leeks over winter in freezing cold, you shouldn't worry about bad weather or frost.

I plant mine by direct sowing. So as season goes I keep thinning and using them like chives. So then at the end of season I will have some to stay and overwinter.
I am ready to direct sow some more and I have a couple of dozenns from last year.

I tried to sow indoors and it didn't go so well, gave up got transplants.

Cyrus - if you planted by direct sow, wow!!! that is all I have to say!

Noki - Thank you, I was wondering if I was just going to have to pull them up. That's a comfort to know, I will wait.

There is a wide variety in harvest dates of different leek varieties. At least in my area the most common leek in stores is 'American Flag', which is a very long season leek that needs to be overwintered to get big. For spring planting, a 'summer' leek will be more productive by fall. There is considerable discrepancy in published time to harvest for leeks, possibly due to different climates or different ideas of when a leek is ready to eat (they can be eaten at any time).

Interestingly, some american flag leeks in my garden got fried when they were about 3/8" diameter by the late summer sun and disappeared. When I turned the bed in the fall I found what looked like ping-pong ball sized onions. Thinking they were onions I put them up with some onions I was overwintering for seed. In the spring, up came leeks, and they got HUGE.

Another interesting thing that happened last year is a couple of my leeks produced plantlets on the flower heads, much like a walking onion. When the flower stalks turned brown I picked off the plantlets and potted them up, which provided most of last falls leek-bed (~300). Those leeks are much smaller than the leeks that grew from bulbs, ~5/8" max now as opposed to 2.5". They were planted out at about 1/8" diameter and every single one made it - like folks said above, the onion family transplants really well.

Large leeks will also produce a couple offsets at their base when they are large and near flowering size. If a leek bolts, you can leave it and have offsets to grow out next year.

Leeks are the only allium that deer will eat where I live, though my deer are particularly voracious.

Ezzirah, When and if you direct sow them when the soil and air are not warm enough
they will not germinate soon. In my zone it is about time to sow them.
Needless to say that sowing inside or in cold frame can give you a head start.
Since I have plenty of overwintered one I am not in hurry