Parsnips in loo rolls

[Lotsaveg]

I managed to scrounge some commercial organic parsnip seeds today which have been coated in a clay ball. They are about the size of a small pea and bright pink in colour (goodness know's why!). This should make sowing directly into the ground a lot easier and hopefully more reliable.

[Jimmy]

Last year I put mine on top of about 1 inch compost and as soon as they germinated lifted them out complete with a bit of compost. Popped into a sallow drill and a shallow covering of compost. Dug half a dozen last month and they were OK. still some left.
To summerise, they weren't transplanted just germinated and layed out.

I guess you could use loo paper. Sow the parsnips down the middle of the loo paper and just lay out the stripes when germinated.

Jimmy

[Two_Sheds]

sowing around the end of April

I chit & sow in April too. I tried a further batch in June and none of them came up (too hot?)

[Bren In Pots]

I grow in my garden and space is at a premium so can't afford to have gaps that's why I sow mine in loo rolls, in the middle of March I sow 4 or 5 seeds in each roll and the minute I see a leaf the roll gets planted out then after a bit I pinch out leaving just one seedling to grow on.

[Jono]

I chit & sow in April too. I tried a further batch in June and none of them came up (too hot?)

Same here, after my early sowings failed.

Got some serious parsnip envy reading some of these posts.

I wonder if parsnips get their difficult to germinate reputation from us growers getting excited and sowing them way too early?

[sarahspatch]

Newspaper pots

Yes, as T.S. said, 2-to-4 inches high is far too late. You need to plant them out as soon as the 3rd leaf (first true leaf) appears - that will probably only be 3 weeks from sowing. (Did they perhaps say "3rd to 4th leaf, rather than 3" to 4" high?)

Personally I don't think loo-rolls are tall enough and thus I use pots made from rolling a sheet of newspaper around a spray can - so they are 6" to 7" .

Hi Kristen, just going to make some newspaper pots that you mention and wondered if you fold the paper under so its an actually pot...if so, do you plant it out pot and all?

Otherwise won't they all topple over??

[Kristen]

Hi Kristen, just going to make some newspaper pots that you mention and wondered if you fold the paper under so its an actually pot...if so, do you plant it out pot and all?

Otherwise won't they all topple over??

Yes, I fold the paper under to make the "bottom" - I leave and inch or two off the end of the can I roll it round, tuck the end bit under, then pull the completed pot off the can.

I plant it whole, bottom and all (bottom will be a bit soggy by then), but I do tear off the top "rim" so that no paper is at, or even "near", the soil surface - otherwise it acts as a wick to dry out the rest (same with peat pots etc).

If you take a tabloid, and fold it in half (top-down-to-bottom, rather than left-to-right) that should be about 7" - 8" tall, and with an inch or two tucked under for the base will give you a 6" tall pot. The double thickness of the folded paper is fine (and it will go round a skinny spray can a couple of times, so you'll have about a 4-ply pot)

[Chef_uk]

One toilet roll inside another at one end so its the length of two minus the lost 15%

Would that work?

Not done anything with my parsnip seeds yet. Saving them with the Carrots and Spring Onions until at least the last week of March. I want them to last until the end of the year or at least as close as

[Kristen]

One toilet roll inside another at one end so its the length of two minus the lost 15%

Would that work?

Sounds OK. (Might be a bit unstable though?)

Try a couple in Newspaper pots ??

Not done anything with my parsnip seeds yet. Saving them with the Carrots and Spring Onions until at least the last week of March. I want them to last until the end of the year or at least as close as

I sow my Parsnips first week of March. We still have Parsnips in the ground to be eaten, and their quality is fine. (I've been growing Tender and True for years ... there may be better varieties and also varieties that are Early / Late maturing, that you could choose from)

From sowing they will probably be about a week until they germinate, and then another 3 weeks until they need planting out (don't delay or the tap root will be out of the bottom of the pot!). Start hardening off 10 days after germination, and plant out early rather than late to avoid disturbing the tap root)

[VirginVegGrower]

Um - or even Hazel!



That's a really good point - I always think of parsnips as being one of the first things to go in, but it's not really surprising that they don't germinate well when we stick them in at the end of feb in cold/v wet soil!

I held back till the second week in march last year, and had reasonable germination, but then sowed a second batch (a leftover half a pack from one of the old boys - see, they aren't daft!) mid April. I think every one came up!

How about sowing direct in March and covering with polytunnel/cloche? Would that work? I am currently warming up areas of my allotment with plastic.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Not done anything with my parsnip seeds yet. Saving them with the Carrots and Spring Onions until at least the last week of March. I want them to last until the end of the year or at least as close as

I find that they last all through the winter whenever you sow them (although you'll have to mark the rows if you want to find them again, as the foliage all dies down) then they resprout in Spring - mine have quite a bit of top growth on now, and I'll be eating them up like mad before they go woody and to seed.

[Hazel at the Hill]

How about sowing direct in March and covering with polytunnel/cloche? Would that work? I am currently warming up areas of my allotment with plastic.

Yep - don't see why not, although the later you leave it, the warmer the ground will be anyway. If I was planning to sow mid Feb, I would cover/warm the soil for a couple of weeks at the begining of Feb (and keep the cloche on till germination), but wouldn't bother if you don't plan to sow until the middle of Mar.

Rule of thumb, I would say, is that if the weed seeds have started to germinate, then then it's pretty much warm enough to sow!

I sow parsnip seed thickly and thin out the extras - you have to buy a new pack each year (the seed won't keep well) and you get zillions of seeds in a packet, so you might as well.

[VirginVegGrower]

Yep - don't see why not, although the later you leave it, the warmer the ground will be anyway. If I was planning to sow mid Feb, I would cover/warm the soil for a couple of weeks at the begining of Feb (and keep the cloche on till germination), but wouldn't bother if you don't plan to sow until the middle of Mar.

Rule of thumb, I would say, is that if the weed seeds have started to germinate, then then it's pretty much warm enough to sow!

I sow parsnip seed thickly and thin out the extras - you have to buy a new pack each year (the seed won't keep well) and you get zillions of seeds in a packet, so you might as well.

Think I will follow that rule of thumb as at the moment I have no more room for toilet roll tubes or newspaper pots in my greenhouse - thanks for advice!

[Alison]

I sow parsnip seed thickly and thin out the extras - you have to buy a new pack each year (the seed won't keep well) and you get zillions of seeds in a packet, so you might as well.

I find that instead of sowing a whole row thickly I put a really good pinch of seeds at the spacing I want and then just thin in each location. That way, no gaps but less thinning between too . Personally I don't believe that parsnips are hard to germinate, they just take a while and I've never had any problems from a last March direct sowing with no cover.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Personally I don't believe that parsnips are hard to germinate, they just take a while and I've never had any problems from a last March direct sowing with no cover.

I'd agree with that - although I do think that they take a long time to germinate compared to other seeds (2-3 wks according to my records from the last couple of years)