Parsnip tip

[Hans Mum]

a tip gleamed from one of my fellow lottie holders last weekend who has had a bumper crop of parsnips and we're on clayish soil here. He prepared the bed they were going in very early spring, made sure there were no lumps and stones, cleared weeds etc, covered the area with black plastic (old compost bags cut down 1 side and bottom) left it there for a couple of weeks to warm the soil up then direct sowed his seeds nothing done to them before hand,
re-covered with plastic for another 2/3 weeks by which time they had (majority) germinated and he knew they were parsnips and not weeds, took the plastic off, bit of watering in the really dry spells and usual weeding between rows and left them to it and they were fantastic. I'm deffo trying this next year as I have not managed to grow a parsnip yet

[Alison]

Parsnips were one of the very few things I sowed direct this year, they took a while but came through a treat. Not as big as yours though but I'm still pleased with the results.