Hello
Hope everyone had a good christmas.
One thing I wanted at the end of my first year was to be able to eat my own veg xmas day, didn't do too bad in the end, the leeks, parsnips and spuds were all my own work.
The parsnips I was particulary proud of, almost a foot long in the end.
Next year I want carrots and cauliflowers as well. Shame about the brocolli ;-(
(http://www.dicky1.f2s.com/xmasveg.jpg)
Dicky
Never grown parsnips yet. Gonna try next year. Hopemine will be at least the same size as yours.... Parsnips!
Wow, you are lucky - I sowed 2 packets of 300 seeds each and got three decent sized snips and lots of tiny ones, it has not been a good year for parsnips for everyone this year, problems with germinating due to the weather, so you must be very proud!
Had to dig up lots to find enough for christmas dinner! :( :( :(
We only had seven from four rows! Dug them all up at once for Xmas, some in a bucket of a soil by the back door....
;D
From the previous 2 comments, are parsnips difficult to grow? Or is it just bad weather?
im no expert had my allotment last july and have not had chance to grow much as yet,........... roll on next year! but i have been told that they are difficult to germinate and take forever to grow therefore they occupy precious ground for a long time.
I think it was just a bad year this year, lots of people said it was. :(
I had loads more last year from much less seed, they all germinated first time, and there were so many postings last year about how well people's parsnips had grown, Dicky, yours is the first I have seen this year! T.
Snips look great Dicky. They can be a bugger to germinate as they don't like sitting in damp cold ground for ages. If you look at the seeds, they are flat like discs - which sit flat in the ground. If the ground is very wet, the seeds just sit with a puddle of water on the top, so they rot. People also sow them a tad early. I wait until April when it is a touch warmer and I have a good success rate with them. They like soft ground and I sow them in a very shallow drill in an area that has been incredibly well dug and not trodden on.
I still have 2 rows of them to use.....parsnip soup anyone?
We had loads and still have loads in the freezer and the in ground, had some quite big ones too. Sowed in two areas one did not bad the other my mate helped with he covered with potting compost that was damp he then got his trowel and smoothed off, like he was screening a floor I did laugh at him but he had the last laugh they grew really big. ;D ;D ;D ;D
They're slow to germinate and rot if it's cold. I don't plant before April any more, and this year I'm going to use fleece. Last year's planting was hopeless.
A friend of mine makes newspapper tubes fills them with compo puts 3 seeds per tube pops them in the glasshouse till they germinate,then thins them out to 1 seedling,hardens them off for a couple of days then plants them out. Allways gets a decent crop. I on the other hand have sown in traditional way for the past 3 years with Gladiator and not had a problem apart from what to do with the surplus. ::) ;D
I sowed Tender and True each time, dibbed big holes with the crow bar and filled with mixed multipurpose compost/sieved soil having waited until April, 3 seeds to each station - wish I had been able to thin them out! So had followed lots of advice from A4a. The only thing I can think is that I didn't water enough, I remember it being very dry at the time so did water them, but possible the multipurpose didn't get wet enough.
I am not sure whether to allocate space to them next year!
Or should I try Gladiator instead. I had really good success with Tender and True and White Gem last year. And having used 2 different new packets of T and T this year, they couldn't have both been old stock?
At least Robert and Dad were the same! I remember other people posting that their parsnips had failed to germinate too, so don't get despondent and not grow them, it was just bad luck with the weather this year for me!
I think I will try 2 varieties and try some with sieved soil again and some just sown in ordinary raised bed and see how I go. And perhaps fleece too like Robert! If they don't grow again I shall give up, but they were delicious last year!
T.
I sow mine on raised beds which helps with drainage and the soil seems to warm up earlier this way . also i water the drill before i sow the seed then cover and not after,i have put the seed in this way the seed does not have to push up though a hard crust made of dry topsoil....poor things. ;D
Mine definitely didn't have a hard crust to fight through which made me think they were too dry in the compost.
Well then it must be ya not putting the seed in the right way up ::),they have a top n bottem you know!!! ;D
bottom even :-[
I did a bit of a test last year
sowed some direct - mixed results from two sowings March/April
put some in paper pots - all OK bit of a faff and some forked routes
pregerminated some and then planted direct (March) all the seed that were planted out grew fine no spacing required and virtually everyone was 12"+
These were all True & Tender but next year I'm going for Gladiator from Alan Romans @ 50p a packet - hope 200 seeds are enough!
Quote from: froglegs on December 29, 2006, 18:57:31
A friend of mine makes newspapper tubes fills them with compo puts 3 seeds per tube pops them in the glasshouse till they germinate,then thins them out to 1 seedling,hardens them off for a couple of days then plants them out. Allways gets a decent crop. I on the other hand have sown in traditional way for the past 3 years with Gladiator and not had a problem apart from what to do with the surplus. ::) ;D
I saw some "Root Trainer" pots today, lightweight split pots, folded at the bottom and five in a row. These should be good to start off the parsnip seed in the greenhouse or propagator, give them ideal conditions and plant out as soon as possible. Clean them up and pack them away after use and they should last several years.
Hey, what about sprouts?
Hi Dicky - I had the same idea as you about growing veg for Christmas dinner. Your parnips look good and it makes you feel so proud when you do it yourself. You can check out my blog to see my parnips.....
we use rootrainers for all our beans, squash, leeks and even some early peas, last yeaar, I think I'll try the parsnips in them this year as we also had a very bad germination last year, too wet, too cold each time :)
I grew quite a few parsnips and had them covered with environmesh as I had carrots in the same bed. However, something has got into them and left orange burrows. Could it be the carrot fly? Does it affect parsnips?
Hi
These were planted in March into hole full of sand/compost mix, made with a bulb planter. Cloche over them until they germinated if I remeber rightly
Glow, I shall definitely pregerminate them next year, sounds the way to go, thanks for that, I shall know the seed are viable then. :)
2005 I sowed in loo rolls, and germinated them in a cold frame. Planted them out a little late though - by the time a real leaf was popping out, the root had already got to the bottom of the roll and gone sideways, stopping the 'snips from getting long.
This year I decided to compromise and sowed in loo rolls that were already in the ground. Sadly the poor weather and germination bit me, and most of the ones that *did* grow were grazed off by slugs.
I tried direct sowing the rest of the packet and got precisely one.
In desperation I bought a packet of Avonresister in June (!) and sowed them anyway, and have a nice row of those, but they're ever so tiny. That one doesn't get very big anyway. Had my one and only huge Tender and True for Christmas lunch, and now am onto the tiddlers.
2007 I am going to combine the techniques again - this time, germinate several seeds per roll in loo rolls, but plant out as soon as I can once they've at least one leaf pair, and only thin after some weeks, so there's several in one place to fight off any slug attack. I have also got several varieties to try. We get bad canker at my lotties and so I'm still trying to find the ones with most resistance.
moonbells
Am I envious? Yes and just a very strong shade of green. Well done that gardener.
the ones I carefully nurtured in the potting shed did absolutely nothing - twice. Finally in desperation I sowed a short line direct into the bed outside and low and behold they all appeared to germinate. Wish I'd planted more. Will be wiser this year.
My carrots, in the same bed, were badly affected by carrot fly and I noticed that my parsnips are 'rusty' - could they be suffering from CF too ? or is it rust ? (its been pretty wet here).
I'm fairly certain that cf don't bother 'snips so it's probably rust!
::)
It's probably not rust or carrot fly, far more likely to be canker
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/canker_parsnip.htm (http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/canker_parsnip.htm)
If you find a rusty-coloured rot spreading through the roots, that's canker.
Last year (06) was our first with parsnips and did 2 rows - 1 in dibbed/compost filled holes and the other in a compost filled drill. Both germinated 100% and produced big parsnips (half of which are still in the ground - is that o.k.?) So we were lucky but am not bragging as our swedes were rubbish this year - for the first time ever - small and "dry" :( ???
Canker, of course MT and Rob... obviously didn't have my thinking head on...
The Parsnips will be oK in the ground until they start making a lot of new leaves and then they go woody to support the flower stem... you can cut round the core and use the outer flesh for a bit longer...
;D
Hiya Wicker! ;D Wish I could grow swedes. Caulis and swedes are my enigma. :'(
Quote from: moonbells on December 31, 2006, 11:59:54
In desperation I bought a packet of Avonresister in June (!) and sowed them anyway, and have a nice row of those, but they're ever so tiny. That one doesn't get very big anyway. Had my one and only huge Tender and True for Christmas lunch, and now am onto the tiddlers.
We get bad canker at my lotties and so I'm still trying to find the ones with most resistance.
Let me know what you think of Avonresister as thats what I was looking to get next year cos I've never grown it b4. They only grow to approx 5inches max apparently. Apparently they are supposed to be resistant to canker and grow in poor soils. I am also looking for a longer parsnip to try if anyone has any suggestions
Hi all,
Our parsnips were things of beauty this year. Absolutely huge, some of them. It was marvellous. We did well with the Xmas veg, if I do say so myself - leeks, snips, curly kale, chard, all from the plot. I would like to impart parsnip wisdom, but I'm afraid for us it's just a combination of dumb luck and some decently-draining soil. :P We don't weed them enough, we tend to forget to water them, etc etc. ???
I don't think it is canker that I have in my parsnips as there are definitely burrows. I have found the odd small worm tunnelling in. They are about ¼inch long and not much thicker than thread. Any other suggestions please?
I have just done a search on the web for the carrot root fly and they definitely attack parsnips. Having seen a picture of them on the following site, I am convinced that is what I have.
http://www.rnzih.org.nz/pages/carrot_fly.htm
You may well have both. If there's a rust-red discolouration, that's canker.
Yes, the CF give an entry for the Canker spores
Been on your blog Rosie it all looks very nice the sprouts looked lovely. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :-*
i'm sad (slightly gleeful really) that we'd ate nearly all of our snips and had none to dig up on christmas day.
was taking them in late august and they were about 8-10inces long and very fat.
i used Gladiator seed, but used a method an old boy next to me told me all about. i made deep holes for them and filled them with sharp sand topped with compost. i sowed three seeds per hole and covered in with cloches, this was about mid feb.
was chuffed to bits as its my first year and i beat a mate of mine whos been at it a few years.
Just goes to show them old boys are sly old dogs!!!! Full of tricks!