Harvest

When to harvest leeks

The short answer

Leeks can be lifted at any size: baby leeks after a couple of months, full-sized ones after about six. Most are ready from late summer, and late varieties stand in the ground through winter and into spring, so there is no need to lift them all at once.

Leeks are one of the few crops that ask nothing of you at harvest time. They wait in the row for months. The one thing that spoils them is a flower stalk.

When it's ready in the UK

RHS says leeks are usually ready from late summer, with late varieties staying in the ground through winter and into spring. Frost may even make the flavour sweeter. Vercro's catalogue gives August to March for the harvest.

Leeks: sowing, planting and harvest months in Vercro's catalogue
Window	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Leek: sow indoorsFebruary to March	January: no	February: yes	March: yes	April: no	May: no	June: no	July: no	August: no	September: no	October: no	November: no	December: no
Leek: sow outsideMarch to April	January: no	February: no	March: yes	April: yes	May: no	June: no	July: no	August: no	September: no	October: no	November: no	December: no
Leek: harvestAugust to March	January: yes	February: yes	March: yes	April: no	May: no	June: no	July: no	August: yes	September: yes	October: yes	November: yes	December: yes

Months from Vercro's crop catalogue, the data the Vercro app plans with. It allows about 14 to 26 weeks from sowing to the first harvest. Weather, variety and where you garden move every one of these.

94 UK gardeners had recorded leek in Vercro by 19 September 2026. What Vercro gardens are growing.

How to tell it's ready

Any size you want. Baby leeks take only a couple of months; full-sized leeks can take six.(RHS)

How to harvest

Gently lift individual plants with a fork.(RHS)
Take alternate leeks along the row, so the rest have room to grow larger.(RHS)

What moves the date

Early or late variety. Late varieties can remain in the ground through winter and into spring.(RHS)
Frost may make the flavour sweeter.(RHS)
Cold spells in spring can make early sowings bolt (flower early).(RHS)

If you leave it too long

A flower stalk. If a leek starts to bolt, remove the stalk as soon as possible, otherwise the leek becomes tough and fibrous.(RHS)
The buds are worth eating. Tightly closed flower buds (scapes) are good lightly cooked.(RHS)

After picking

The ground is the store. Leave leeks where they are and lift them as you need them.(Garden Organic)

Keep a record of what each bed gave

Log what you pick, and how much, bed by bed. Vercro keeps the record, so next year you know what worked where, and Today shows what your crops need next.

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Where this comes from

Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.

How to grow Leeks, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Leek, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.