Parsnips

[Reks]

hi,
I sowed a row of parsnips and recently after more than 1.5 months I can see few seeds sprouting. Has anyone tried to grow parsnips in modules and then transplant them. They r such tiny light weight seeds sometimes I wonder in mine all have flowed away during watering or the rains. Do parsnips like being transplanted?

[zazen999]

Hi Reks

There are loads of parsnip threads on here usually around March/April; have a go with your search button - My best parsnip sowing was this year, on a prepared seed bed, with a sand layer over the seeds and organic slug pellets, and I weeded it for about 8 weeks before any seedlings came up, but now the foliage is about a foot high. The prepared seed bed just became their final position, I guess in not telling them this at the outset they were happy to finally germinate.

[Graham S]

They can be transplanted but you tend to damage the long root. When the 1st leaves are on just showing you'll find the root is already several cm's long. I have in the past sown them in toilet rolls and planted them out (including toilet roll which rots off) as soon as I see germination - this way there's very little root disturbance.

[DaveInBraknell]

Hi,

I used root trainers, fantastic things with a good couple of inches of soil in febuary.

My parsnips are now about 3ft tall and about two inches across on the top of the root.

Toilet roll holders also are just as good, I just use the trainers as I then reuse them for other things.

Dave

[Reks]

All - thanks for the tips - will use some loo rolls that I have been saving and maybe my seeds in the ground just start growing too...I did sow them late as I got my allotment late.

[NOG]

I can never grow parsnips....they never seem to grow for me.

[DaveInBraknell]

Hi NOG,

Here's what I do..

Firstly buy new seed, I used Tender and True this year.

Secondly, push your finger just into the soil, leave a shallow impression.

Finally drop one seed in per root trainer, then water the trainer really well, and leave for three weeks.

Have about a 80-100% Success rate.

Nothing special?

I cannot grow beetroot though..

Dave

[NOG]

You grow them in root trainers then plant out when they big??

[Glutton4...]

I've never grown Parsnips from seed before, so tried all the germinating tips I'd read, ie; soggy kitchen roll in plastic container and keep warm to keep up the humidity etc - had 100% failure, yes, total zilch!

Luckily a friend had some pre-germinated seed as a free gift with an order he had placed, and he gave them to me as his family don't like them!!! I planted them in loo-roll tubes, and because of the previous poor result, put 2-3 seeds in each one - you guessed it almost total success - I got 3 in many of the tubes! I planted them out, tubes and all, when I had space in a bed. They has their first true leaves by then, and they are still growing well, not 3' tall yet tho!

[DaveInBraknell]

Hi Nogs,

No, I plant them out when they have two or three true leaves on the top.

There's enough depth of soil for them to go straight, you then dig a whole and plug it in..

[NOG]

I will try that...this year I put out about 4 packs of seeds and have one plant.

[taff]

I put some in loo rolls, they finally all germinated. It'll be loo-rolls all the way next year.
The ones I direct sowed didn't show for weeks [hence me saying so the other week] They've now sprouted and are looking good.

[janto]

hi
this year i sowed into 120 toilet roll centres transplanted when 1"tall 99.99% success

[organic vic]

I sowed the first ones in loo rolls and planted out and they are 12" tall and 100% germination but with the successional sowings I sowed direct and got 100% germination there too. In fact as I was sowing direct a gust of wind blew some out of my hand and I am finding germinated parsnips all over my raised bed!

[zazen999]

I pulled up my first jiffy 7 sown parsnips, as they were in tubs as an emergency if the ones in the ground didn't germinate. The ones in the ground now have foliage that is a foot tall, so I could ditch the pot sown ones.

I roasted them on Sunday; they were lush. Small, but lush.

They were grown in sand and to be honest, I don't think that you ever get 100% of them growing 100% straight, even these some of them had stopped at 2 or 3 inches for no apparent reason. Very strange.