Repotting parsley?

I have a query about parsley, and am posting it here instead of the herbs section simply because this section seems to get more answers.

The parsley was sown in early 2009, and has grown successfully on a windowsill since then, being regularly harvested.

It now consists of several profuse stems of foliage and a newly emerging stem of about 2ft in height, coming into leaf and flowering at the top.

The question is - should I now re-pot this parsley? It has always been in a small pot, and though the new stem looks too long and bendy for a small pot, could moving it now be disturbing to its roots? Perhaps I could lift the plant out of the pot with the soil around it still intact, and absorb this into a new pot?

 

Simon, normally you would treat parsley as an annual. As it is now flowering I would say dump it and get some fresh plants in.:D

 

Don't dump it - save the seeds and you'll have free parsley plants forever. I haven't bought parsley seed in over 20 years.

You'll still need some fresh plants until you've got some new ones grown from that saved seed, but don't dump those, etc., etc.

If you want your new plants in a pot by the kitchen door then put the old parsley plants in some corner of the garden to go to seed.

 

Yer a miserable sod too Scrungee
Never thought of that
Must try it

 

Ooops, is my face red.:o Never thought of harvesting the seed. As long as it`s not an F1 variety, of course.

 

I'm a lot happier when I've got a 124g bag consisting of thousands of saved parsley seeds, and that's even after I've sown/planted most of what I need for this year, plus given loads away.

 

Thanks.

I just like growing plants and seeing what happens.

Re the seeds: are you saying I can just collect the seeds from this one plant and it will be enough to fill a bag like that?! Would I need to keep adding seeds year on year - and wouldn't they rot if I did so?

 

I grow and eat a fair bit of parsley, but it's also an emergency green stuff for the hens, and used the be the staple diet of my daughter's guinea pigs that passed away a few years ago but I still haven't got out the habit of also growing for them, and that seed came from a whole bed of it.

Maybe I should pull more plants up and let less go to seed, but I never seem to cut enough going to seed plants to tie up for the hens to peck at to sufficiently reduce the number, then suddenly there's loads of seed which all gets saved as I don't want to chuck it on my compost heap and possibly have loads more of the stuff coming up everywhere.

But the main reason of keeping so much is these hard winters which have been devastating my overwintering parsley before they go to seed the following year, so I wont get rid of those seeds until I've safely gathered enough this year for the following couple of years.

But basically one plant will probably produce hundreds of seeds.

 

Sounds perfect, this is what I've been aiming for. I left loads of plants to go to seed last year, it took ages to ripen them properly, then scattered them over the garden. However, I haven't noticed any self-sown parsley seedings this year yet so I think I'm going to have to buy some as my ones in seed trays have also apparently failed.

Rabbits love the stuff. As well as me.

 

So what do you think - should I repot it or leave it in its current pot? Thanks.

 

I would Simon. Keep it wet while you do it, if it bolts, cut the flowers off untill it gets the idea & starts producing leaves again.