Oh Ooops, Parsnips!

I've just found some parsnips I dug up last year but forgot to bring into the house for cooking (Silly me, must have had a bout of dementia).

They've started sprouting again.

They are Gladiator which I believe is an F1 hybrid, If I replant them do you think I could obtain viable seed from them? Just a thought.

 

Don't know about replanting them Vince ...but i came across half a dozen stray parsnips today.....made a nice bitof curried soup with them

 

Personally I wouldn't bother with anything F1 ... no telling what the offspring would be like, and you will wait a whole year, and sacrifice the area of ground, and you time, love and care to find out.

Buy a packet of seed in the late Summer/Autumn sales (although you may prefer to have current-season seed for Parsnips as their viability falls off sharply; I chit my Parsnip seed, so even seed that is a year or two out of date still gives me enough plants to be useable)

 

Thanks Kristen, I've already ordered this years "fresh" seed for consumption, I wasn't planning on filling the whole bed with my new founds, just one or two in a container.... Heck, I'll give it a go... come back in 2 years time for the results!

 

Can be worth moving some biennials to the flower border. I think Leeks looks nice when in flower (and old varieties like Musselburgh are open-pollination, so you can save-your-own-seed). Not sure that I think that Parsnips flowers and seed heads are that pretty though!

 

How do you chit parsnip seed, Kristen?

I've often had very poor and slow germination from parsnip so fresh home-saved seed is a a good resource.

Not sure what kind of plant F1 seed would produce but a home gardener doesn't need total uniformity of size and harvest time anyway. Could it produce woody or otherwise unpalatable roots?

 

Damp kitchen paper in a Tupperware bog. As soon as the root appears I pop them into MPC in newspaper pots (newspaper rolled around an aerosol can) and harden off and plant out by the moment the first true leaf appears [any later and the taproot will be protruding from the bottom of the "pot"]

It has a reputation for being fickle, and I think that is compounded by sowing direct outdoors. But its a debate that has been had on here before and people who have not had a problem sowing direct have not recognised that other's have a problem.

It could produce anything, unfortunately. An F1 is a cross between two parents each of which are pure bred for specific characteristics. Individually they might not have produced a pleasant result, but combined & crossed it produces something greater than the sum of the two parts.

But you might also get something that is very good, or even exceptional.

Personally I don't like to spend the time, space and effort risking it. Ditto, for me, with seed saved from Supermarket Peppers and the like. Instead I devote some time working out the best way of getting the quality seeds that I do want cheaply and for the last few years that's been the Wyevale / Garden Centre Group Autumn 50p-per-packet sale.