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Following advice on this forum about germinating parsnips on a damp paper towel, i have a plastic pot with damp paper towel sitting on my radiator.

My question is how long do the seeds take to germinate?   

Thank you for any replies.

anything from a few days to a couple of weeks, do you have top on the box or they dry out quicklyXX Jeannine

Keep checking them as the tiny shoots can soon get stuck in the paper!

I would take them off the radiator, as parsnip doesn't need heat to germinate, I just put mine in a sandwich box, well sealed, on the worktop in the kitchen.  They can germinate outside in March according to the packets so wouldn't need heat.  Mine germinated in about 3 days this year!  As Caroline says you need to keep checking as the roots get caught and then you get odd shaped parsnips growing.

Good luck

T.

I am astonished at the variation within one packet. I've checked them almost daily (in their plastic lidded box with damp kitchen paper), and removed each one with a root into a loo roll. The last ones were in there for a month! They are all out in the plot now.

I tried 3 different varieties this year, White Gem, Tender & True and Javelin.
After 10 days most of the WG and T&T had germinated so I started to plant out, but only about a 1/5 of the Javelin had germinated.

As others had said, need a sealed container, and room temperature is enough.

Thank you for all your replies...my first two have just started to germinate so i will plant out