Topic: Parsnip discolouration

[saddad]

Dug up some parsnips about a week ago, and had them in the salad drawer of the fridge... which is misbehaving and often near freezing.
Preparing them for tea last night I noticed a brown speckled band between the core and the main flesh. It wasn't a problem, it actually made removing the core easier. Nowhere near as damaging as canker. Has anyone else seen this or know what caused it?

[Deb P]

You would have thought they were immune to cold damage but then they are normally in the ground!
Dunno tbh….🥴

[saddad]

Don't think it was the fridge... for that very reason.

[ACE]

You say it was a band, bands on a tree depict the different weather conditions for the years, so perhaps different weather conditions for the months in the growing season. Dry spell, wet spell etc. This climate change has certainly thrown up different problems this last few years.

[saddad]

Possibly, I want to check the rest that need digging up, but had an operation on my wrist on Monday so it will have to wait!

[Tee Gee]

I tend to go along with Ace's theory. I have no experience in terms  of Parsnips but  I do with Beetrot.

For example when I exhibited Beetroot some judges would insist on cutting a Beetroot in half to look at the ring structure. Which, like trees are a very good indicator of moisture take up e.g. Dry seasons and wet seasons.

With Beetroot the judge initially can only see  nice evenly shaped rootballs not  if the Beetrot has been grown well. Similar to trees the ring spacings are a good indicator of watering regularity but in the case of Beetroot these rings are not annular rings  no if the ring spacings are irregular the watering over the season has been irregular. Meaning a Beetroot with even spacings is more likely to be given preference over a Beetroot of similar size and shape with irregular ring spacings.

So based on what we know about Tree and Beetroot rings I could believe that similar irregularity with  watering Parsnips may indicate  the roots have suffered from a stop/start growing seasons, or put another way they have been poorly watered!

On reflection I for one rarely if ever watered my Parsnips but  that was before the weather patterns started being as extreme as we have been having over the last few years. During recent growing season we have record hot spells followed by record wet spells and vice versa  so if the soil lacks humus then moisture retention is usually very poor. So the roots are getting an  irregular moisture supply, and it may be this that have given cause to the brown rings.

So the question is; do we add humus to our Parsnip beds something which I was told never to do because it can make the roots fork,or do we still continue as we have always done in years gone by?

So in conclusion I think IMHO this is an other  old  gardening technique that is being affected by global warming.

Over to you guys...what do you think?

[saddad]

Think that is probably it... I never water the After they have true leaves and grow in beds of "spent" compost from the previous years tubs and growbags. As I am not exhibiting them it's not a real problem... may just be an odd one... thanks TeeGee.

[saddad]

Well as it had rained all week, and the Physio had said my wrist was doing well, I pulled another short row of parsnips (Javelin) and they were fine, not even started to go woody, but will have to keep at it as the new leaves are coming on strong so the flower stems won't be far away. Also I need to clear the bed to start putting the potatoes in.