Forking Parsnip Confusion........

[Bigmallly]

I've just been browsing this book by Joy Larkcom. If you read page 298 she states that root forking resulting from planting on fresh manure in not true according to demonstrations..This now leaves me confused....


Grow Your Own Vegetables - Google Books

[HeyWayne]

Language dude, language!

[zazen999]

I was never confused.

[Bex]

LOL my thoughts exactly Wayne.

We'll have to do a trial, manured and not manured and see what happens.

[Bigmallly]

I was never confused.

Spill the beans Zaz...does planting in fresh manure cause forking in parsnips & other root veg?

[Nicos]

Language dude, language!

I KNOW !!!!....2 naughty words in one sentence.......I sooooo nearly pressed the triangle!!!!


OK- this piece seems to go along with that too....

( quote...Parsnips will grow well in manured soil but inevitably when you come to harvest the roots there is a strong possibility that the majority will have forked.)

Growing Your Own Vegetables - Parsnips and Brassicas by Medwyn Williams MBE FNVS, Chairman of The National Vegetable Society

[organic]

There's only one way to settle this...
FIGHT!!!

Or maybe, rather... put your parsnips in, some of them into manured soil and some following the more conventional advice. Come harvest you'll have a pretty good answer, I expect. If all else is equal (variety, exposure, location, aspect and so on) then the manure is the only variable... assuming your soil isn't full of stones that is - that does cause forking, right?

[zazen999]

You can do all the right things, and some of them still fork. You can do it all wrong and they don't.

As we all know; snoops are the rebels of the vegetable world. That's why snoop doggy dog named himself after them.

[Bigmallly]

There's only one way to settle this...
FIGHT!!!

Or maybe, rather... put your parsnips in, some of them into manured soil and some following the more conventional advice. Come harvest you'll have a pretty good answer, I expect. If all else is equal (variety, exposure, location, aspect and so on) then the manure is the only variable... assuming your soil isn't full of stones that is - that does cause forking, right?

That seems a great idea..........I may just try that if I can ever get them to germinate.

[Bigmallly]

Sorry about the language guys.........It won't happen again, promise.

[Lazgaot]

I planted some parsnips and carrots in a heavily manured bed last year and some forked and some were fine. However, alot of the ones that forked were also ones that I "pre-germinated" in a damp tupperware box, then planted out.

In another bed that was an onion bed earlier and wasn't manured, these were directly sown and were perfect.

[Creemteez]

I planted some parsnips and carrots in a heavily manured bed last year and some forked and some were fine. However, alot of the ones that forked were also ones that I "pre-germinated" in a damp tupperware box, then planted out.

Quite a few of my pre-chitted snips forked last year, so in the interest of science will conduct my own little experiment. Will plant some chitted and some direct in the same bed and see what comparison there is - if any.

[Paulottie]

I planted some parsnips and carrots in a heavily manured bed last year and some forked and some were fine. However, alot of the ones that forked were also ones that I "pre-germinated" in a damp tupperware box, then planted out.

In another bed that was an onion bed earlier and wasn't manured, these were directly sown and were perfect.

So we can deduce that there is a lot of talk about forking parsnips...but it's mainly chit.

I have a lot of saved fresh parsnip seed (ex Student) if anyone wants any?

[Rocketron]

Paulottie, I applaud you on your first sentence, but am mystified by your second.
Why would an ex-Student have an abundance of P###### seed?
I think I may regret asking. LOL

[zazen999]

It's an heirloom variety.

Heirloom Seed Companies - Heirloom Seedsmen