Leeks and Parsnips

Parsnips don't transplant well. I go to a lot of trouble (many would say!!) with mine, but I do think it pays off.

I sow the seed on damp kitchen paper. It germinates quite quickly. This solves sporadic germination, and works fine for old seed with low efficacy (you only need to prick-out the ones that have germinated, and you can "sow" a whole handful if you need to)

I then make newspaper pots (rolling newspaper around the fly-spray can, and tucking in the bottom). These are only about 2" diameter, but probably 6" tall. I use multi-purpose compost.

I transplant the germinated seedlings. Its a bit fiddly, but you only have to do it once a year. I grow about 50. I don't bother with this for any other crop - well, except sweetcorn, but those seeds are much larger and easier to handle - but they don't like transplanting much either.

Put just one per "pot" (I have done two, intending to thin, but then I forgot / missed some and they grew wrapped round each other which was a waste of a season's worth of growth, so I only do "singles" now).

Plant out AT THE FIRST TRUE LEAF STAGE. Yes, this is TINY :thumb: but IME the tap root is already coming out of the bottom of the 6" "pot" by then :o

I use a bulb planter. Get it down as deep as it will go and fill the hole with "fine soil" (I don't bother with proper compost or anything fancy ... but you could :thumb and then plant the "newspaper pot" so that its soil level is at soil level (well, just below and I make a cup-shaped depression so that water runs towards the plant, but I don't plant them "deep" per se.)

Water sparingly - important the plant tap root goes down searching for water. But if planted early in the season they will be in, and growing well, long before any drought. I did have to water mine mid-Summer - they were wilting in the Summer sin - I gave them a proper soaking, and then left-alone for at least a week.

 

Hee hee.... I've just re-read my previous post and noticed that my predictive text changed parsnip to paramilitary! :skp:

 

I liked that bit.:thmb:

I was picturing the leaves as sargent stripes :gnthb::tnp: