No success with parsnips!

[eskymo]

Hi there

I have tried growing parsnips for the past two years but have had no success what so ever...I can't even get the blasted seeds to germinate it is that bad!

What am I doing wrong?

Do parsnips need a certain temperature to germinate?
Do they need a certain type of soil?
How long do they normally take to germinate?

I have always planted the seeds in deep seed trays and kept them in the growhouse, but nothing EVER happens. I have also tried planting the seeds directly into the vegetable plot and again nothing happens.

I think I'm jinxed!

Any advice will be more than welcome as I would like to succeed this year as my partner loves parsnips and I would hate to disappoint him for the third year running!

[Lottie]

I haven't had much success with them before this year but here is what I did this year.

I grew them straight into the prepared soil in rows and left them to it! I marked where they where. They took weeks to germinate I just 'forgot' about them. When they did I carefully weeded them by hand - not with a hoe. The seed has to be fresh - I die not get mine from the 'big' companies as before - it was probably just me, but I never had any luck with those. I bought mine from a small site, and tried three different varieties as I had not much luck in the past - and they all germinated and grew. All I can think of is that it was the seed. All I did was sow them and leave them - I don't have water on my allotment. I also put the last packet in as an afterthought, as I knew it was no good to save them until next year, and although it was about October time - they have grown too, and are ready for digging up!

So I do not have any tips - but just thought I would let you know how I got on this year.

If at first you don't suceed. I am sure an expert with give you real advice soon

[eskymo]

I think I might do as you did and plant them directly into the veg plot and forget about them...Thanks for the story of your success.

Maybe it's my seed then that has failed me - I don't know how old it was at the time - can't remember when I bought them?

I'll buy some fresh this year - any advice on where to buy the seed from?
What varieties did you grow that worked the best?
Also - how did you plant them - shallow or deep and how far apart?

[j.flett]

parsnips

parsnip seeds need to be fresh as they dont keep ,unlike most other veg seeds,also scorzonera dont have a shelf life ,unlike say zucchini which keep for years and still grow.

[eskymo]

I think my seeds were definitely old.

I've just read a tip in a norganic book of mine that suggests pregerminating parsnips and fluid sowing them. So I'm going to give that a try.

[j.flett]

parsnips

on the subject of pregerminating seeds,i once read, but never tried ,is to use wallpaper paste in which to sow seeds,as u never let the seeds dry out ,& they dont get too wet either ,has anyone tried this method??????

[eskymo]

Hi there

That's what I meant by 'fluid sowing' - in the book I was reading it mentioned to pregerminate them and then put them into wallpaper paste and sow them like piping icing onto a cake.

[Nicos]

might be worth putting some fleece over them too just to keep them more cozy. Yes they do take forever to germinate.

[eskymo]

I've just spent an hour or so in my kitchen setting up a few small trays lined with damp tissue so that I can test a load of my old seeds. I thought 'why just limit it to parsnips' as I've got a load of old seeds. This way I can test which seeds are 'past it' and which are OK. So I've got them up here in my office on the windowsill and I can't wait to see what happens - I've got all excited about this gardening year all of a sudden!

I'm going to order some new parsnip seeds as I realised today that I've got none left. In the Dobbies catalogue you can buy pregerminated seeds but they come in packs of 500 and I can't see myself planting 500 parsnips - I only have a tiny patch as I do all my vegetable growing in my own garden in one area and also in amongst all my other plants. It gets mighty crowded in the summer! So I think I will just get normal seeds.

I'm going to be a lot more calculated this year as I'm self employed now and working from home and no longer getting up at 6.30 in order to commute into Edinburgh and not returning home until 7pm. So I'm going to have more time to monitor my garden and also keep an eye on everything and also make a note of everything I'm doing.

Previously I've not been able to figure out why things have gone wrong as I've not really taken note of what I did.

[Lesley Jay]

I watched Toby Buckland sowing pre germinated parsnip seed but he germinated the seed on wet paper towel then mixed it in the wallpaper paste and squirted it out down the drill line. It didn't work very well.

[eskymo]

LoL!

very funny.

I think I'm just going to go with pregerminating them and then planting them out normally as I think I'll make quite a mess with wallpaper paste.

Thanks for the warning.

[nick the grief]

If you use wallpaper paste make sure it doesn't have anythig added as some ahve chemicals to stop mould & will stop your seeds. Our lottie secratary sows his is a seed tray & trasplants them but as the have a long tap root I think you'd be better with the long roottrainers (can't remember their web address) but parsnips are notorious for slow germination, luckiy we don't like them so I don't have to try and grow them !

[Clarea1]

how do you pregerminate and what are the benefits of this? I am doing parsnips this year.

[Patsy]

I tried the Toby Buckland method after seeing him on Good Food Live and found it worked well for me. You lay the parsnip seeds out on damp kitchen paper on a plate, cover with clingfilm and put in airing cupboard . Keep checking them and when they start to break through the seedcases remove from the kitchen paper and mix with those water gell crystals that you can get from garden centres. Spray or dribble water over them till gell swells, stick the resulting mess into a plastic bag, cut corner off and pipe into a row in soil and gently cover with more soil. They will eventually grow though I have to admit if you forget about the gell and it suddenly swells again after watering if can make you wonder if Qatermass has surfaced on your allotment. Worth trying anyway as most of our allotment seers swear parsnips hate being transplanted.

[Clarea1]

Thankyou for that Patsy, I will try that