salsify

[hawthorns]

thinking of growing salsify for the 1st time. any growing tips and types to grow

[HeatherL]

Salsify (and Scorzonera) are on my list to try and grow next year. The variety I've seen the most is Mammoth. As far as I know you treat them like parsnips, but would also be interested to hear any growing tips

[solway cropper]

I grew it last year and was very disappointed. It has a long growing season and the roots were only a moderate size. It tastes a bit like parsnip so I figured I'd just keep growing parsnips. Try it by all means but I often think that many of these 'gourmet' vegetables are not really worth the bother.

[binley100]

We've got some salsify growing in the CG ........dug one up and it looked like an squid with lots of tentacles ......must try digging up another . The scorzonera didn't succeed ..

[alex-adam]

I tried - and failed miserably last year. - might give another go though.

Found this link which might help: From a Worcester Allotment: Growing Salsify

[Snadger]

Grew it, but never ate it. Has beautiful flowers though!

[veggiechicken]

Grew it, but never ate it. Has beautiful flowers though!

Same here! The flowers were a nice surprise.

[northepaul]

Grew it last year, enjoyed it although as others have said, the roots werent massive. I prefered scorzonera meself. This year the crop totally failed....will have another go next year.

[leicestershirelass]

I was thinking of growing salsify this year although it doesn't sound from previous posts that it was very successful. I tried parsnips for a couple of years but they didn't germinate / grow, whereas very successful with carrots.

Has anyone had a good salsify crop?

[di]

I grew it a few years ago, for some reason I couldn't bring myself to eat it, the root looked milky and just not nice, the flowers however, as Snadge and VC say, stunning. Thankfully they self seed really well so I now have them dotted around,here there and everywhere to add a bit of prettiness.

[Piggle]

tried it - ended up with more legs than a squid so I've left it to flower .. I believe it is lovely to look at.

[Vince G]

Growing it this year. It's bizarre. First leaves it chucks out look like someone has pushed 2 dead pine needles into the ground. Nearly weeded it out when it came up. It was only when I noticed a row of them I thought, hang on, that's where I planted the salsify! Never eaten it before so only done a short row.

If it's anything like scorzonera, we'll like it as we had some in our veg box last year. Mrs Vince nearly chucked it out as she thought someone had dropped a load of old twigs in the box until she read the label saying what was in it and by a process of elimination, worked out it was scorzonera.

Saw Hugh F-W cooking salsify - he boiled it briefly and then put it in a dish in the oven with cheese and breadcrumbs on it. Looked delicious.....time will tell.