Tips for growing Parsnips

Hiya Kristen.

I can absolutely only speak from personal experience.

I sow mine into toilet roll cores (as you say) in my un-heated greenhouse. It seems like almost to the day, they germinate after 3 weeks. Once in the past, I left them for a week, and I snapped them of as I tried to lift them from their station. Needless to say, they all forked. Amazing how quick the tap grows! The 'packet' says one can sow in February, and I tried this for a while, in open ground. The results were not good. That's why I hang on until late(ish) March to sow. As you say, there may well be a bit more leeway when sowing into something a bit deeper, never tried it

 

I was amazed too. Seedling with just the two seed leaves, no true leaves, and looking pathetic has a tap root coming out of the bottom of a 4" tall newspaper pot after 3 weeks ... impressive

 

Yes, to be sown in toilet roll tubes and left in a polytunnel [1] to germinate (which took exactly 3 weeks last year) and checking every day or every other day as an absolute minimum for signs of leaves as the root will be at the bottom within 3 days.


N.B. If anybody's thinking of doing this - check you wont be away on Easter Holidays at 'sprouting time' because 3 weeks from today is slap bang in the middle of the school Easter holidays.

As they must be planted immediately, whatever the weather's like, I left a sheet of polythene over the intended planting site which was rolled back as required and will doing the same this year (when the rain has stopped).



[1] As they have to be planted immediately after sprouting there's no time to harden them off I would be nervous about germinating somewhere too warm.

 

Good idea.

I definitely don't have this problem (in the sense that I don't plant to quickly, and I don't get Parsnips shaped like gloves!!).

Only different I can think is that my newspaper tubes are taller than loo rolls - although not by that much I suspect?

However, there is no harm in planting out mega-early of course ... the primary issue here is that Parsnip seed is slow to germinate if planted outside when it isn't warm, and even then is likely to take 3 weeks. Doing it indoors gives you guaranteed 3 weeks from sow-to-show, and 3 weeks less, in good weather, for weed seeds to be germinating and getting ahead ... and probably 6 weeks extra time for weeds in a normal, miserable, cold Spring!!

The other thing for me is no thinning. I've left a pair of Parsnip seedlings (by accident) in the past and they grew into a deadly embrace spiral :( Hence I chit mine on damp kitchen paper and then "pot" one-per-pot/tube so that I definitely only have one-per-planting-station

 

Anybody planted their parsnip seeds in open ground yet?


If this weather keeps up I might try sowing some stump rooted carrots in toilet roll tubes. I realise this is going 'off topic' but thought it sensible to discuss here as the principles will be exactly the same. If anybody has tried it, do carrot roots grow at the same an rate as parsnip roots?

 

I did ordinary carrots in newspaper tubes one year. They grew fine, I can't now remember how fast before they were out-the-bottom of the tubes, sorry, but I've never done it since because I thought that, even for me and my high-faff methods, one-tube-per-Carrot was way too much Input for individual Carrot harvest Output!

I think for Carrots you would be better off with reasonably decent sized pots, and find some spent multi-purpose compost (left over from last year's Tomatoes or somesuch - obvious New would also do), and mix that 50:50 with sharp sand. Mrs K likes Carrots done like that because she can go to the back door, where the "Next to harvest" pot has been relocated (by the Under Gardened ) and just pull a few roots for a meal.

I'm a newspaper-tube man, as you may remember, so not an answer to your question but just to say I sowed mine on damp kitchen paper in a Tupperware box on 12-March (although my "planned date" is 01-March) and have today (23-March) potted them into the newspaper tubes (with a 1/2" of chitted root). I expect they will be a week until the seed-leaves show, and then 3 weeks before the first True Leaf shows and they must be planted (but as discussed before, another method is to plant immediately the seed leaves show, personally I use that as an indicator to start hardening off, lets say that takes a week I then have 2 further weeks until first true leaf by which time I must have planted them).

Parsnip Bed is not ready yet, and I will want to rotavate it before planting, so lets hope that between 1 week from now and, say, 3 weeks from now I have weather good enough to do that!

 

Thanks for all that info, I realised later this morning that I hadn't asked how long chitting parsnip seeds takes as I intend trying that in addition to sowing directly in the tubes.

I didn't intend sowing small finger carrots in tubes, but some Flakkee as in pic to make it worthwhile:

 

I grew Flakkee (formerly Flak) some years back. Without much effort (and stoney soil) I got some large roots. I guess if you want this kind of Carrot then starting off in tubes is worthwhile. Only thing I would say is that they wont imo be as sweet and tender as the more 'regular' types.

 

I'm wondering if sowing a 'turnip root' variety of parsnip such as Kral might overcome the forking problem if parsnips sown in tubes are left too long before planting out.