Propogating Parsnips

I was listening to gardener’s question time a few years ago and heard a question about germinating parsnip seeds and how difficult it is. What does the panel suggest. Well, Bob Flowerdew said sow them as usual inn a drill in the ground, cover them with soil and water them and then place a wooden plank over them. How does that work was the follow up question to which the answer was I have no idea but it does work. So off I went and tried it and it does work!

However they still take a long time to germinate, maybe a month or more and during that time every year I get nervous and wonder about sowing some more. So this year I decided to try a different approach and sow them in my greenhouse. Now, parsnips don’t like being moved and usually die so how could I overcome this problem? Well I am trying to sow them in old toilet rolls cut into half and filled with seed compost and kept in a seed tray.

I have put them under and propagating cover and water them regularly and they have emerged after just 16 days and are looking really healthy. There are plenty for two rows and I can space them out neatly. I just need to harden them off first.

I’ll update this post when I have transplanted them on one of the next root days in April.

I checked my parsnips to see how well they were growing and found the roots were coming out of the bottom of the toilet roll and so it is time to plant them out. The parsnips went in the ground today and it was easy to dig a small hole, sink the roll into the hole and fill in around the edges with no disturbance to speak of. We decided to plant them not in rows but in blocks so here are some pictures of the layout as well as the parsnips in the ground. I’ll let you know how well they survive.

I did the same trick with some Japanese Burdock seeds at the same time and planted them out in our forest garden today too. Japanese Burdock makes a great tasty tea and very good for the health so we’re looking forward to tasting some next autumn.