parsnips

[diver]

help, I wish for something which I thought was simple and straightforward....to grow parsnips from seed. I have sown some in trays on the windowsill in the spare room on feb 10th...nothing has happened even though I have tended my 4 seed boxes with care. I have sown some on damp news paper ( as advised in a local gardening paper )....I have inspected them regularly ,kept them damp and in the airing cupboard...nothing has happened, and then an old guy( 86) says he sows his straight into the cold wet ground in early march and usually gets a crop...he says the seeds are a bu**er !!...which if any is the right way?

[diver]

[wardy]

You probably forgot the mantra!  You have to recite the parsnip incantation or they will simply not grow.  It's a fact well known in gardening lore.

[TULIP-23]

Diver ;)

Use Fresh seeds every year.
Febuary is the Traditional time to sow Parsnips but
its better to wait until March when the weather is warmer even April.
If your growing one of the shorter rooting Varieties.

Parsnips seldom produce satisfactory roots after transplanting.....so throw away ¨Thinning`
Take care....never touch the Crown of developing Plants

The soil should not be allowed to dry out its necessary to water when there is a prolonged dry spell.


Extract  The Vegetable and Herb Expert

Diver hope that helps  shed a little light Good Luck.

[gavin]

Hi diver - I'm with your old guy;  chuck 'em in in March (or even early April) and ignore them.  And yes, the seeds are a b....r - use fresh seed every year.

All best - Gavin

[Mrs Ava]

Here here Gavin (altho my seeds were a few years old and I had more 'snips than you could shake a carrot at!)  Me, start of April, well dug but unmanured ground, sowed thickish to allow for the poor germination and leave them to it.  Some people also sow radish with their 'snips as the radish mark the line, grow quickly and are long gone and eaten before your parsnips are more than seed leaves!  Probably best not to start them off in trays because if you damage the root hairs, which I think inevitably you will, you end up with round mishapen 'snips that are a pain to peel, like octopus!!

[ina]

A while ago there was a thread on growing parsnips. Lady Cosmos wrote that she had good results from sowing them in paper pots indoors and then planting them out, pots and all so the roots don't get disturbed.
This is what I'm going to try this year, some in newspaper pots and some directly outside.

I've never grown them before and I don't know anyone at our lottie complex who has. Parsnips are not very common in Holland.

[TULIP-23]

Ina Thats absolutely true :)

They are not grown so commonly here
in Holland ???

My First attempt this year ::)

I wanted One Parnips for Sunday Roasting

The Cost  Euro 2.25 for One!!! But it Tasted Wonderful
Haha :P :P

Good Luck with them Ina

Nice to see you Back Hope your Much Better

[wivvles]

Parsnips were one of the things I couldn't get to grow last year...

So, my plan for this year is to get the root bed prepared (done) and warmed up (covered and hopefully warming up as we speak).

Then I was going to make holes with my dibber (piece of broom handle), fill these with compost, sow two or three seeds in each, cover with a cloche or fleece and see what happens, thinning as necessary.  My soil is clay - not particularly heavy - but quite stony.  I thought that this might give the parsnips a better start. 

More time consuming and fiddly, but Mrs Wivvles does love parsnips, so I'm going to give it a go.

Makes sense to me, and might try it for carrots as well...

[ALAN HOWELL]

Hi ...I use primed seed from Dobies,they never fail me.....Alan

http://www.dobies.co.uk/

[wardy]

I've only ever grown parsnips once and I used F1 seed (can't recall the variety) I sowed them direct outside.  Then completely forgot about them.  Then one day many months later my dog came into the kitchen with a beautiful parsnip in his mouth.  What a good dog  :)  He digs me carrots up as well.  Anyway I went out and did a search in the flowerbed (that's where I'd put em) and lo and behold there they were.  Beautiful.  Never weeded.  Never fed.  Just completely neglected and forgotten about.  So sounds they thrive on neglect.  They were very clean too without so much as a slug hole.  That's brilliant because we have loads of slugs.

[ina]

What a wonderful success story, love it.

[moonbells]

Having never grown them before, I am following the advice of one of the local allotmenteers: sow in cardboard tubes eg loo rolls or half kitchen rolls.

Dampen the compost, level off about an inch below the top, sow three seeds in a triangle, cover with another half inch of damp compost then leave. He said a cold frame is perfect (though given the recent cold, I kept mine inside until I got leaves!)
Expect them to take at least 3 weeks to appear. If more than one per tube germinates, nip off the weakest.  Grow on in the frame until soil starts to warm (ie potato planting time) and then pop the whole lot into the ground at the required spacing (about 8"). The loo roll will gradually rot away leaving your parsnip to grow downwards, and because there is a good 4" of compost, you'll have 4" of parsnip above any forks :)

Mine started appearing at 2 weeks, have been parked in the frame and are doing great! I'm only going to grow 20, just to see how they do, but then I've also got some salsify to try as well! The other nice thing about the individual rolls is that you can move them as they appear, rather than having to wait till a tray is all up.

moonbells

[ina]

Thanks Moonbells, that's how I'm going to do it exept for paper pots instead of toilet- or kitchen rolls. I think the rolls in Holland are just too thick and sturdy. It should work just as well in newspaper pots I would think as long as I make them tall.

[Clayhithe]

I've also got some salsify to try as well!

Do let us know how you get on with salsify!

I started some salsify and scorzonera rather late last year:   they seemed to grow well,  but they were very slim!   Mrs Clayhithe complained (but not too much) about the peeling and preparing.   They didn't taste of much either.

[diver]

thanks folks, I planted two rows outside today ,but I had manured the soil last autumn, and now I am going to go and make paper pots and try that method as well...the worst that can happen is that I'll have lots of parsnips..but we all love them!

[Andy H]

I used iropn bar to make hole,filled with compost and planted 3 seeds in each hols, thinned to best one. massive parsnips 20" long and straight! (1st attempt)

Problem is, now got too many! How do I freeze them?
I was told they go woody if left in ground and the leaves are growing back now?

[carrot-cruncher]

This will be my second year of growing snips & I'm following my oracle (dad!) who's been growing them for years.

He always starts his off in pots, then transplants the entire rootball into the garden, where they're generally ignored.  In extremely dry weather they get an evening drink of rain water.

They're left in the ground until they've been seasoned with one or two good frosts to sweeten them up then they're lifted and passed to mum's tender care where they get sliced into "chips" and thrown in the freezer

YUMMY

CC

[TULIP-23]

Carrot Cruncher :)

How Many per Pot and What size ???

[markp]

My parsnips have always gone straight in the ground on relatively unmanured soil in Feb/March and have come straight up. I just hand weed them when they're small and then leave them until Nov/December apart from the odd hoe session. The 2003 crop was fabulous - almost every seed in the packet came up!! That's on clay soil. If you want to plant them at home first, grow them in cardboard toilet tubes and plant them in the final position in the tubes. This makes sure the roots aren't disturbed and means you don't have to buy pots made of peat - a precious natural resource!! I've never bothered with radishes in the rows. And last year's crop was terrible because of floods and goats. But they still came up OK. Just make sure it's new seed and you should be fine.
Hope this helps 

[carrot-cruncher]

Sorry, by pots I meant the cardboard inners from loo rolls & kitchen rolls.  He sows two seeds per inner & pinches out the weaker seedling.   When he feels the seedlings are strong enough to go out the whole lot (seedling, compost & loo roll inner) is transplanted direct to the garden.


The one time Dad ran out of inners (cos he does this with his carrots too) he used 2-3 inch pots.  That year he transplanted the seedlings from the pot to their final growing place, complete with rootball.  

Whichever way he does it he always seems to get wonderful crops of snips & carrots but perhaps it just down to his forty-odd years of growing stuff

CC