My parsnip germination expriment

[Curlykale]

What a great thread! I've never grown p******s before so am copying some of your experiments.

I have planted some 'a-la-mogs' - took a flask of just boiled water down to the lottie and poured it in the holes before chucking the seed in - I put a row of radish seed along too to mark where I had sown them.

I also put some seeds on 2 plates of kitchen paper and covered them with clingfilm but they dry out really quickly - I have to spray them every day - and when I lift the clingfilm it 'collapses' onto the seeds and they all stick to the film and lift them off the paper. I'll try some more but in a deeper plate/dish this time.

Must try some in the airing cupboard too - but I'll have to clear all the clutter out first!

[chris]

Argh !!

I forgot all about the parsnips in the fridge lol.. This website is STILL ongoing If I can finish it off later tonight then I'm going to get back to sowing things. I have a big list to sow now.

Back the the parsnips.. I planted the two seedlings out in a bed, hoping to get some funky shaped roots.. I was very careful handling the root, it hadn't come out of the bottom of the loo roll yet, so I think I caught it just in time - but when I harvest them i'll put a pic up of what they look like...

Interesting about the kitchen paper drying out, mine wasn't dry (though I did use cotton pads)... I'll give it a go (though as I'm away over easter I may wait until i'm back) and report back too !

[Bigmallly]

This may be of interest to you Chris.

http://www.assuredproduce.co.uk/reso...snips_2007.pdf

[Dane End Dolly]

Some of my p******* have germinated in their toilet rolls and the root has not reached the bottom yet. I have planted them all out over the lottie and have the top of the toilet roll poking up so i know where they are, if they do not come up, i will just have a major sulk and yank out the offending toilet rolls and replace them with a crop that can interplant with parsnips (well that is the theory anyway.....)

Kx

[FoxHillGardener]

...I also put some seeds on 2 plates of kitchen paper and covered them with clingfilm but they dry out really quickly - I have to spray them every day - and when I lift the clingfilm it 'collapses' onto the seeds and they all stick to the film and lift them off the paper...

I pu them on damp kitchen roll in one of those clear plastic takeaway boxes witht he lid on. I've got loads if anyone wants any. They make good general seeds trays too with some holes in the bottom. I've not thrown any away for years so I have stacks of them. Perhaps I should freecycle...

[stella]

I dont have a problem germinating them its the growing on that gets me

[Curlykale]

Hi FoxHill Gardener

Thanks for the tip about the takeaway dishes - I'll try that idea.

I have about 50 of those dishes myself but they are all in use at the moment holding pots of seedlings on all my windowsills - they are just the right size! I was thinking of asking my local chinese restaurant if they would sell me some.

I have sorted out my airing cupboard and put some more seeds on kitchen paper in there.

One of my books recommends something called (I think) the "fluid sowing" method for parsnips, where if I remember rightly you mix the seeds with wallpaper paste or water retaining gel and 'pipe' it into the ground (like icing a cake) from a plastic bag with the corner cut off. Has anyone tried that method?

[chris]

Well, I forgot about the ones I put in the fridge (typical) - so sowed them out yesterday.

All of my others now germinated.. the ones that overspilled in the prop - I came to empty it out yesterday and they'd germinated too (albeit extremely tangled up) - quite shocked really.. so went to look at the ones I sowed direct - yup their up too !

I hope these other ones come up, as they've been at 3C for a long time, it was really warm yesterday and the soil was quite warm too - maybe I'll be able to get some later ones if they take!

[womble]

I germinated mine on kitchen paper and planted them all out yesterday, I had 30 of the 40 seeds germinate and I'm sure most of the rest would have come through if I had left them for another day or two.
This is the first time I've done the whole crop like this, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out. I've got a good feeling about it

[chris]

*bump*

Well, today I decided to harvest one of my transplanted parsnips.. I was very careful when doing this, as I didn't want a mass of unusable mini roots from the shoulders of a parsnip.

All I can say is after I tried tugging and tugging for 5 mins I feared the worst! Anyway, eventually loosened the soil around the parsnip, and yanked some more - fell over pulling the darn thing out, but wow was it worth it. I was shocked, just sat there with it for 2 mins gazing at my new pride and joy !

The parsnip was pretty much as tall as my 1 year old, and weighed in at 950g once trimmed and washed! After reading about all the problems, I was really skeptical about my parsnips so really happy with myself!

To boot, I went to get some carrots too (Autumn King), and pulled this whopper too (450g) - so lunch for the next week and probably week after is Potato, Carrot and Parsnip soup!

So happy, my smile almost touches at the back of my head - seeing as this is my first time from seed, I'm bouncing!

* chris scampers off to the kitchen to check on the soup!

Edit: In my excitement I forgot to ask how all yours are doing?

Edit2: Coin in the pics for reference is a 50p !

[lottie dolly]

WELL DONE,i can see peeps haveing a go at transplanting some next year,i will,just got to put it on my list of lottie doe's and dont's

[coreopsis]

I'm not a fan of parsnips but I admire your carrots.How did you grow them so big?

[womble]

But transplanting caused the root to break into lots of roots? I wouldn't call that success tbh. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I've just read the optimism that I had when I started mine off, oh dear.

Your carrot however is fantastic, you must have good soil.

[chris]

Carrot wise.. I just left it to its business, I'd built a raised sqft bed - double dug the soil, and before back filling I layered newspaper in the bottom and soaked it.. haven't had to water that bed at all yet. I dug in a bag of compost too, to get rid of it really as it was full of wood chippings (little did I know that these'll probably rob nitrogen as they rot down! Sowed them direct, left them to it.. I was careful with the spacings though, so I didn't have to thin out (learnt the hardway with that on!) I had I think 9/sq ft in that one, and in the next square I think I put 16 in.. not pulled any of them yet though. I removed all of the stones that I could do, which was painful but worth it so far! A couple carrots I had were large shoulder wise, but only 2 inches length wise - I guess them hit a stone and just gave up

A couple of them (I presume) have had slug damage around the top, since the recent rain washed the soil away.. just cut it out and munched on it/made soup

Wasn't sure how long I could leave the carrots in, I think I sowed them back in March. Going to leave the rest in until xmas to see how they are!

According to T&M's website:

Carrot Autumn King 2 produces long, large roots with a deep rich red internal colour. Ideal grown for the heavyweight class at local shows. Can be left in the ground all winter without splitting.

So I guess they're bred to be large? I didn't know at the time just saw the name autumn and thought cool, maybe I can get some xmas carrots.

Womble, indeed small roots off the main one, but once trimmed off it looked better I'd expected millions of tiny roots, sort of like BM's Davey Jones' 'nip! I'd like to have left it in till xmas, but curiosity got the better of me hehe.

[quark1]

Magnificent veg - btw - do tell your youngster he/she's much more attractive than a parsnip!

Some peeps will do anything to get publicity for their veg! Only kidding.

Well done!