Parsnips in Containers?

[Jono]

Hi all,

My parsnips are eternally rubbish. I can get them to germinate okay, but they tend to grow very wide but very stubby. This year I grew them next to carrots, and the carrots grew downwards okay, so I know I loosened the soil enough.

I'm thinking about trying something different with them this year, as I love parnsips, but they always disappoint!

Has anyone ever had any luck growing them in containers?

Thanks very much,

Jono.

[Kristen]

Maybe your soil is too rich, and they are not bothering to grow down searching for Water and Nutrients?

[piskieinboots]

I have uses the Pigletwillie method in the past and it works really well.

Drive a short pole into your soil, back fill with good compost and drop ya seeds in there - three to a hole, using scissors snip off two of the three when they have germinated to leave just one to a hole.

For my pole I used a spade handle, without the spade bit obviously

I believe PLW has used a scaffold pole but I may have dreamt that.

[Kristen]

I favour a bulb planter ... but same principle

[Aberdeenplotter]

Parsnips for exhibition are grown in containers, - big containers - 40 gallon barrels. Filled with sand and then holes cored out to take compost down to a depth of more than 4ft. I don't think that can be called stumpy. The compost mix commonly used is peat based. My mix is as follows

16 ltrs peat
16 ltrs sand
16 ltrs loam(or just sterilised riddled top soil)
7 ozs Chempak potting base
4ozs lime


have a go.

[arpoet]

After years of little or no return on snips grown in the ground, last years we turned an old wardrobe into a raised bed, filed it with h/m comost and topped of with bought compost and topsoil. Just chucked the seeds in and surrunded them with carrots.. and had a great crop of good thick and hearty snips that swamped the carrots. Problem was they were ready too early so we had the eat em well before xmas. Shame!
Just took another wardrobe down the lottie and got 3 more lined up to use as raised beds.
Roger

[Bren In Pots]

I grew mine in a large container this year they did fine only problem was that the soil took took longer to thaw out than soil in the beds so I couldn't get to my parsnips when I wanted them.

[solway cropper]

Jono,

Because my soil is derived from boulder clay it is full of stones so I stopped trying to grow decent carrots and parsnips in it years ago and now grow them in an assortment of pots. The pic shows the contents of a black flower bucket and is fairly typical of the yields I get. Approx. 1kg of snips per bucket. If I thin them out more I get bigger snips but overall the weight stays around the same.

Put plenty of drain holes in the bottom so the tap roots can go down into the soil.

[Jono]

Thanks all.

Solway - that sounds just what I'm after. My soil is very stony.

[Snadger]

I've grown them in 4 foot lengths of drainpipe before and had really good results!

[Florence Fennel]

I grow mine in raised beds, but my friend with 2 allotments grows hers in 4 aluminium bath tubs and they're beautiful snips.