Growing parsnips

[Alice Johnson]

Hi everyone. What are your top tips for growing parsnips?

[Small pumpkin]

I'm guessing you're asking so some of our answer might end up in the Nov/ Dec issue of the magazine?
In which case I'd appreciate being informed of that fact.

[Penellype]

Parsnips
Ignore advice to sow in February. Perfectly good parsnips can be grown from a mid-April sowing and they germinate a bit faster (about 3 weeks). Patience is required.
Use new seed (ie from an unopened packet) if at all possible. Old seed will give very poor or no germination and any that do germinate may produce poor plants.
Give them plenty of room - the foliage from a row can flop over to cover an area about a metre wide, shading out other plants. Grow catch crops in nearby rows that will be finished before the parsnips get too big.
Net to keep out carrot fly which can damage roots and allow canker to get in.
Use gloves when handling foliage and avoid contact with bare skin, particularly in strong sunlight. Parsnip foliage can cause quite a severe photosensitive reaction in some people.
Eat after a few frosts for the best flavour.

[1Bee]

I've tried sowing a row and thinning, sowing in root trainers and sowing in homemade deep paper pots, but I have had the best results station sowing a pinch of fresh seed every 6 inches or so, not too early in the season. I thin out to one plant per station and I'd also say don't be afraid to sow again if you have gaps.

I don't inter-crop, because I just end up accidentally pulling up parsnips when I pull up radishes etc, and the weeding gets fiddly!

[Chippy Minton]

Take a large spike, jab in the ground about 150-200mm deep and rotate to form a cone the desired distance apart. Fill cone to 1cm from ground level with compost. Sow a sprinkling of seeds and cover with compost. Mark the stations so you can find them once germination has occurred (it's possible to lose them in a swathe of annual weeds). Once germinated weed out to the strongest. Wait. Wait a bit longer, touch more waiting and then harvest once frosted. Roast, possibly with a touch of maple syrup, and turn excess into curried parsnip soup.

[Bill Door]

Had my very best results from an old packet of seeds sown mid February after poking a hole about 2 cm deep with a very short hazel branch. Each hole was nearly 10 cm apart. I tried to get one seed in each hole but it was so d**n cold I think I put at least two in each hole. I did three rows with about 15 cm between each row.I then walked back over the sowings flattening the sown area. I then left the whole lot to their own devices. It was a great crop.

We had recently moved into our new house and I had only cleared one area of builders rubbish, hence the "devil take the hindmost" attitude.

Bill

[Snadger]

Parsnips
Ignore advice to sow in February. Perfectly good parsnips can be grown from a mid-April sowing and they germinate a bit faster (about 3 weeks). Patience is required.
Use new seed (ie from an unopened packet) if at all possible. Old seed will give very poor or no germination and any that do germinate may produce poor plants.
Give them plenty of room - the foliage from a row can flop over to cover an area about a metre wide, shading out other plants. Grow catch crops in nearby rows that will be finished before the parsnips get too big.
Net to keep out carrot fly which can damage roots and allow canker to get in.
Use gloves when handling foliage and avoid contact with bare skin, particularly in strong sunlight. Parsnip foliage can cause quite a severe photosensitive reaction in some people.
Eat after a few frosts for the best flavour.

Sorry Pen I have to disagree with you on this one! My Dad always sowed parsnips in February and I get better parsnips by Feb sowing. You may get a poorer germination this early in the year but the ones that do germinate knock spots off later sown parsnips.
I proved this to myself last year when I had poor germination in Feb but not much better in April. The difference was the Feb sown plants were a good size for roasting where as the April sown plants were small and spindly.

Father knows best is my motto!

[Aberdeenplotter]

I grow in stations 4" apart in rows which are 18" apart. Between the stations I sow radishes which germinate very quickly and which mark the rows and give an indication of where to expect the parsnips to appear. Parsnips can take quite a while to germinate and weeds have the horrible habit of appearing before them so it's very useful to be able to know where to be able to pull the weeds and where to leave well alone for fear of pulling the very young parsnip seedlings out of the ground. At the end of the growing season, parsnips flavour up well after a frost so if possible keep some in the ground late on to be able to enjoy them at their best.

As a method of cooking, we peel them and then cut into chunks, par boil for 5 minutes or so, coat in cooking oil, dredge in parmesan cheese and then roast at about 200c until lovely and golden. Finger licking good

[Aberdeenplotter]

Use gloves when handling foliage and avoid contact with bare skin, particularly in strong sunlight. Parsnip foliage can cause quite a severe photosensitive reaction in some people.

The foliage won't cause any problems but contact with the sap if a stem is broken can cause the problems you describe. Parsnips are an umbilleferous plant and are related to Giant Hogweed which most folks will be familiar with. Vegetable exhibitors who grow parsnips are very familiar with the risks involved with contact with parsnip sap and refer to the very painful blisters caused as parsnip burn. They don't show immediately but intensify over a period of hours/days. Been there done that and long trousers and long sleeved shirts are the order of the day when handling them.

[burnie]

I was a slightly late sower of new seed and have some of the finest I have ever grown, haven't waited for a frost as they are massive now. I am surprised you used old seed Bill and got a crop as I was of the understanding that Parsnips had to be new seed every year. Remember no use of manure on roots beds, only compost or they fang. Never had the blister problem when handling them though.

[Mark_Riga]

Yes new seed every year and sow quite thickly as germination can be poor. Have sown radish down the row to mark where it is as can take a long time to germinate.

[Snadger]

Sometimes Parsnip seeds get a reputation they don't always deserve .When my Dad and I tidied my Grandads house out when he died we found newspapers under the carpet with the Titanic sinking as the headline
He also had loads of seeds and although I can't be sure they were from 2012 the packets looked pretty old to me. My dad broadcast them on the veg plot and had parsnips popping up all over the place..

[Mr Bones]

Sprinkle the seeds into a pre-watered drill. Cover with an inch of compost and firm it well down so full contact is made with the seed. Dampen the compost and make sure it stays damp (damp rather that wet)

[Penellype]

Sorry Pen I have to disagree with you on this one! My Dad always sowed parsnips in February and I get better parsnips by Feb sowing. You may get a poorer germination this early in the year but the ones that do germinate knock spots off later sown parsnips.
I proved this to myself last year when I had poor germination in Feb but not much better in April. The difference was the Feb sown plants were a good size for roasting where as the April sown plants were small and spindly.

Father knows best is my motto!

Interesting. Last year I sowed parsnips at my friend's on 23rd April. By Christmas the roots were so big that I had serious trouble getting them out of the ground. This was one I harvested on 31st December - most of them were a similar size:

[Snadger]

Interesting. Last year I sowed parsnips at my friend's on 23rd April. By Christmas the roots were so big that I had serious trouble getting them out of the ground. This was one I harvested on 31st December - most of them were a similar size:

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Just goes to prove, if you ask 10 gardeners a question you will get ten completely different answers, all of which are right for them.

Mine from a February sowing looked similar to yours!