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Although I've been gardening for decades, I'm not too clear of the answer to this one.
Parsnips are a biennial so we usually sow them early in one year and harvest them the next winter or spring. I left some plants in for a couple of years which of course ended up with huge plants flowering and making lots of seed which I have collected. A lot fell on to the bed and now, in January, due to the mild weather, there are numerous parsnip seedlings filling the bed.
If I simply thin these out to give a reasonable space between each one, are they going to grow into new parsnips for 2014/15 or will they believe that they are already in their second year, carry on growing, go woody and make more seed. As they have been seedlings since around October I'm not sure where they are in the 'biennial' cycle.
Each seedling already has leaves with a spread of around one to two inches.
Would I do better to pull them out and sow new seed in March, or will I simply get a nice early and hopefully large crop from these?
Interested to hear what people think!
Parsnips are a biennial so we usually sow them early in one year and harvest them the next winter or spring. I left some plants in for a couple of years which of course ended up with huge plants flowering and making lots of seed which I have collected. A lot fell on to the bed and now, in January, due to the mild weather, there are numerous parsnip seedlings filling the bed.
If I simply thin these out to give a reasonable space between each one, are they going to grow into new parsnips for 2014/15 or will they believe that they are already in their second year, carry on growing, go woody and make more seed. As they have been seedlings since around October I'm not sure where they are in the 'biennial' cycle.
Each seedling already has leaves with a spread of around one to two inches.
Would I do better to pull them out and sow new seed in March, or will I simply get a nice early and hopefully large crop from these?
Interested to hear what people think!
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