Hi,
Please accept my apologies for this question if it seems very obvious. I've only just taken over a very overgrown plot, which I'm working on bit by bit and I have no previous experience. I was hoping to get as much in this season as I still have time for, and I'm confused as to what I should do about parsnips. I was thinking of starting them off in a mini greenhouse, but have just read that they're poor to establish roots when transplanted. Does this mean I should be sowing them directly outside??? Many thanks. By the way, fab, helpful website!
For what it is worth baggy bird I would sow direct as I have (crossed fingers) never had any probs with germinating parsnips. best of luck.
I'm also new to all of this... I ended up sticking 3 seeds, direct in the ground, at every point I wanted a parsnip. You then rely on at least one of the three germinating.... if you get more, then you nip the extras off.
Joy Larkcom & other vegetable book authors tell you to try it this way. The theory sounds good to me... You can also sow quick growing radishes between the parsnip stations, since they will be ready to eat, before the parsnips need the extra space.
:)
Yup - with gadfium! It works - as long as they germinate (says he waiting very (NOT) patiently for the seedlings to pop up! :)
Good luck - Gavin
Try growing them in the greenhouse and then putting them straight to ground! I know you are not supposed to move root crops or desturb them. Only sow them in ther final growing position. Sorry I do not adear to the text book way of gardening. I have grown many root crops including carrots, beet, turnips with great sucsess. The best gardener is the gardener that experiments and has patients. Wait! If you can grow good crops doing what you do then stick with it! If you have trouble growing a certain crop then you have nothing to loose! Experiment!
I grew some in modules last year, and altho I was extra careful when planting them out, I still ended up with parsnips that resembled tennis ball shaped aliens! Sow directly if you can, still time to do it so don't panic! And welcome to the site Baggy Bird! ;D
Many thanks for all your advice - its very much appreciated. I'm going to sow them direct and see what happens!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once again many thanks!
Oh and BB, between the parsnips sow some radish seed, they grow faster than the 'snips, and then you can see where your row is!
BB, my 1st year too and I waited until 3 weeks ago to set my parsnips to let the earth warm up a bit. I have sown directly with 3 rows along a drill and 3 rows with 3 seeds at 10" intervals. I can happily report that both ways seem to have germinated with no problems other than that I will have to thin out heavily!!
Last year I sowed a whole packet of parsnips and absolutely none of them germinated. I think I sowed them too early (March). They don't like the cold and damp.
THis year, I sowed them two weeks ago. Which radishes as above. So far the radishes have germinated. And there are a few something elses growing as well, that I'm hoping are parsnips.
I absolutely love 'snips!
I read somewhere of someone pre-germinating tomato seeds on damp kitchen roll. When they germinated, they were then planted on.
I wonder .... has anyone tried to pre-germinate parsnip seeds in a similar way. That way you would only plant parsnip seeds that had germinated ?
Yip, that's how I grow mine:
Pregerminate
Make a large dibbed hole (like you would for a leek)
Almost fill hole with compost
Water
Add seed
Top with more compost
This also means you have a nice dark patch exactly where your parsnip will come up that you can hoe round without fear of slicing off the emerging shoot
FANTASTIC !!!!!!
Diana, I will give this a do ....
I am fairly new to this too so I can't claim to be an expert, but I planted a row of parsnips 6 inches apart, 3 seeds at each point.
As I'd heard that parsnips can be difficult to germinate I also at the same time planted a few in toilet roll inners in the airing cupboard. Put these in the mini greenhouse as soon as they germinated.
Sure enough I had a few gaps in the row and used the ones in the toilet rolls to fill the gaps (planting toilet roll inner as well as seedlings - cardboard will rot down)
I now have a complete row of parsnips growing well so it seems to have worked.
Learner
If you pop cut off drinks bottles over the top until they're a couple of inches tall that'll help against slugs too - depends how many you're growing though as it would be a pain if you're doing a couple of rows
Oh dear! Wish I'd read this thread before I sowed my parsnip seeds this morning. This is my first year, and sowed them thinly, as it said on the packet,in a drill, 8 inches between rows. There should be some definition of thinly as from the posts above mine are sown thickly with very little space between plants - should I just thin drastically should they all germinate? I was wondering how people sow radishes along the row, and distinguish between the germinating seeds, and wondering if harvesting them would disturb the parsnips - now I understand.