parsnips & carrots

:cnfs:I would like to plant some parsnips come spring. Are there any varieties that anyone would recommend for taste/successful growing etc.

Someone told me that its much easier to grow carrots in pots that in the veg plot. Is this true and if so can someone tell me why?

Thanks

Sheelagh

 

Hi Sheelagh we have only grown some wee carrots this year so can't really say ours has been too much of a success.

One of the best ways to grow really good carrots is really fine soil because lumpy soil will just give you mutant carrots i.e. looks like it's got legs! :D
Don't water the carrots let the carrots find the water themselves and they will grow nice and big.

One trick I have learnt from our allotment 'Master Carrot Grower' is if your soil isn't really fine then bore a hole into the soil and fill it will fine compost, pop one seed in and give it a light covering again with compost. This works incredibly well as I have seen the results myself and boy are the carrots HUGE. I think George (The Carrot Grower) uses the same technique for his parsnips because they too are blooming HUGE! Hel.xxx.

 

Carrots will also fork if the soil is too rich!

I grow carrots and parsnips in raised beds to avoid the dreaded carrot root fly but next year will let some take their chance up on the allotment. Last year I managed a 28" carrot in my raised bed but this year it's looking like 2.8" will be a result :'(

 

I am having a problem gettinng my Parsnips out of the raised bed they grown that deep.

 

Hi Sheelagh. I always use the variety 'tender and true'. They seem pretty reliable and always give me good sized roots. I actually start mine off in toilet roll cores(filled with compost - 3 seed per core) in the coldframe which seems to give them a good start. Giving them some protection (coldframe or cold greenhouse) at the start ensures good germination. This method though requires that you plant them in the soil as soon as they're up as the roots will very quickly find their way to the bottom. I find that using the normal method of sowing direct usually results in poor and sporadic germination. Hope this helps. Cheers...freddy.

 

Gosh I love this website! You're all so blooming lovely and helpful. If our stuff doesn't grow this year it won't be for lack of help. I think I will get hubby to knock up some raised beds (he loves making stuff) and then combine the advice I've been given. Who knows maybe one day I'll be able to give someone tips myself. Thanks all! Sheelagh

 

Hi Freddy

You gave me some tips a while ago about growing parsnips in tubes. I've been saving them but am unsure about when to start them. Is it too early now???
Sheelagh

 

Parsnips usually sown February onwards, my soil is colder than normal, so I'm waiting a bit longer yet.

 

I had intended to go and sow mine in the next half hour using the method Hel describes, straight into the soil in the raised beds I have been studiously turning again this morning.

As for carrots in pots, I am going to do that but use the variety Paris Market Round, my soil though dug over well is perhaps a bit too stony for carrots, I am using shop bought fine compost.

 

On second thoughts I maight just cloche the bed for a bit first to warm the soil up.

 

Good plan! I'll go and Make Up The Bed too I think ...

 

I'm hanging back on my carrots and parsnips too. Although I have raised beds and live down south, I feel the soil is still too cold and rather saturated at the mo. I'll give freddy's "plant in bog roll tubes" a go though, probably sow a few tomorow in the greenhouse

This year I'm trying:-

Parsnips - Gladiator & Javelin, both widely grown commercially

Carrots - Early Nantes, St. Valery and Autumn King II

It will be interesting to compare those grown in raised bed in my garden and those grown directly into the soil up the allotment.

 

Flippin` `eck, all you veterans are trying loads of different ones, I`m a poor newbie and only going for one kind-"White Gem".


And Kristen my bubble wrap duvet is on the beds now.

 

Nothing wrong with one kind lollipop, but variety is the spice of life?

I've tried white gem before with mixed results, I'm trying to find a variety that suits my soil conditions best and as I'm the only one in the family who actually likes parsnips, I can't justify to her who must be obeyed, swamping the whole garden and allotment with "trials". I'll be splitting one raised bed in the garden half and half and probably just one row of each at the allotment.

Considering I'm growing 6 varieties of potatoes, I don't think 2 kinds of parsnip excessive? LOL