Parsnips In Kitchen Roll Tube

[Cadalot]

Inspired or a Nutty idea ?

I always have problems growing parsnips, so I have been saving kitchen roll tubes and I intend the sow parsnip seeds in each one and start them off in the greenhouse then use my soil auger drop the kitchen roll in the bore and fill it up with compost.

[veggiechicken]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ips_11646.html

[Bren In Pots]

I used loo roll tubes a few years ago planting them out as soon as I saw a bit of green showing, so with the kitchen rolls being longer you'd have more time to get them in the ground before the root had chance to show and end up being forked and deformed.

What I do now is to pre-chit my seeds on kitchen paper and sow the viable seeds. this way works best for me.

[Snoop Puss]

Do you sow straight out into the ground, Bren?

[1Bee]

I made my own tall newspaper pots... and sowed them with chitted seed. I had better luck station sowing a pinch of seed direct...

[Lumpy]

The best parsnips I ever grew was last year. They were from free seed tape (Ta VC for the link to it all). Rather than alot of seedy cooing I literally made in indent in the soil with the edge of my hand, laid the tape in it, covered with a teeny amount of soil and left them to it.

I think nearly every one germinated.

I would however, never be able to do it again.

[Thelma Sanders]

I make very long newspaper pots (made around an aerosol spray can) and even so, by the time that the first lot of true leaves are showing the roots have already reached the bottom of the pot.
So you do have to be very, very quick at planting them out if you want to avoid wonky roots.

[Miss Mousetrousers]

I've always sown them direct but find a lot of the seedlings get nipped off by whatever pest is in the vicinity. What do survive grow ok but then get tunnelled by other pests so I've given up; however I'm going to have another go this year and mix in lots of gritty soil into their trench to see if it helps them get going better and also they shouldn't fork.

[Bren In Pots]

Do you sow straight out into the ground, Bren?

Yep the go straight into compost filled holes usually a couple of seeds into each.

[Greenleaves]

A few words of caution Cads....

Make sure you fully sink the card tubes below the soil surface or they act like wicks and draw the moisture away from the roots

[Issy]

I used loo rolls and kitchen rolls to sow parsnip seeds. - I just had to see how well they had done as never grown parsnips before - very pleased as the two I dug up used in the stew - will definitely do this again next year - waiting for a frost here that make them sweeter or is that an old wives tale?

[Thelma Sanders]

If you leave them in the cardboard tubes does it stop them from getting really fat at the tops, or does the cardboard rot enough for them to do so?

[chris_m]

I'll be giving this a try for some of my parsnips next year, as a comparison, since I had mixed results this year;
Firstly, in my ignorance, I tried seedlings from the garden centre - which produced a root structure even more straggly then my beard.
Secondly, the seeds I sowed directly in the ground had a good try but the poor soil didn't help them - hopefully I've fixed that for next year with my new beds.
However, the seeds I sowed directly in a dustbin of compost seem to be doing rather nicely - the one I pulled to compare with the ex-seedlings and direct ground sown ones was rather good, a bit small in diameter (but, then, it was pulled too early so was really rather young) but it was a nice length and perfectly straight.

So, I think I'll try some tube-germinated ones in the ground, some more in a bin, along with some direct sowings in the ground and some more direct sowings in a bin.