Has anyone got any spare Competition/ showbench Leek pips SPARE??

You intend growing pot leeks as opposed to blanch leeks which are the longer stemmed varieties.

Exhibitors keep their stock going from year to year using pips or grass as by doing so, using this vegetative form of propogation, they will get an exact clone of the parent leek which normally will have been on a show bench as part of an exhibit being one of the best grown by the exhibitor.

The Pips are harvested from the seed head(the flower heads are actually shaved off to encourage the production of pips/grass) in the autumn and started off in growth using bottom heat and grown on over the winter months under artificial lights.

Most growers will start off with many pips and gradually reduce so that the optimum number of the best plants are retained to grow on and the rejects will be binned or just planted out in the garden for kitchen use(or given away or sold).

So bottom line is that you are probably too late for this year.

However, I would suggest that you have a look at the National Vegetable Society website, identify the secretary of your local branch,(we call them District Associations or DA's) and get in touch with him. If you are prepared to join, I'm sure that you will be put in touch with someone local who will be prepared to try to help you out.

thanks very much for all the information I can tell you getting stuff out of the guys at the club is like getting blood from stone yet I don't know why I am surely no danger to them not ever having a go at growing to show before now
Anyway I will try as you suggest and contact a local DA secretary and see if its not too late
Thanks again

My brother lived in N Yorkshire for a while and growing leeks down there was serious business. Prizes at the shows being things like fridges and tellies down to the 100th place. Mind you, these guys do pay into their leek club every week so you can see how the money would accumulate and it's maybe also understandable why someone wouldbn't want to give away some of his stock to compete against himself.

However, to demonstrate that all Yorkshire men aren't tight, and also that NVS members appreciate competion, in the knowledge that anyone you give something to still has to grow it, one of the best leek growers in the whole country who lives in Yorkshire, after the NVS national championships in Dundee last year, gave me the three leeks off his winning collection to set down to seed. That is the attitude that is needed to encourage folks to have a go and I hope you find someone in your area who has some leeks he can let you have. If not, let me know around October and I shall make sure you have some good stock for 2012 off a top strain of leeks..