Composting parsnip canker

[Chippy Minton]

Dear knowledgeable forum members,

I dug up a few parsnips for the Sunday roast this afternoon and one, a whopper, was pretty much unusable due to canker. The question is, can I compost it or do I need to dispose of it in another way? I'm reluctant to throw away any organic matter that can be usefully composted but don't want to perpetuate a problem.

Did a quick search as I thought this might have been a previous question but couldn't find anything on the forum, apologies if this has already been answered. Or is there a compost forum

CM

[Bigmallly]

I've never had the luxury of germinating P****snips never mind growing one but I would not have any problems in throwing it on the compost heap.

[bearded bloke]

Yep,another vote for composting here

[binley100]

here too........

[Bren In Pots]

I tend to cut away the canker bits then eat the parsnip but if yours was full of canker I don't see why you can't compost it.

[Penellype]

Canker is a fungal disease with no known cure. Personally, unless your compost gets very hot in the middle I would be reluctant to compost it as the disease survives in the soil and you could simply spread it around the garden.

[Bill HH]

Boil it then compost it. Mind you the energy used in boiling it would cancel out any benefits to the environment that composting would achieve. Probably best to chuck it in the dustbin. I think that global warming would not be slowed too much by one composted a parsnip anyway. However if your guilt ridden, you could go and buy a replacement parsnip and compost that.

[Chippy Minton]

Boil it then compost it. Mind you the energy used in boiling it would cancel out any benefits to the environment that composting would achieve. Probably best to chuck it in the dustbin. I think that global warming would not be slowed too much by one composted a parsnip anyway. However if your guilt ridden, you could go and buy a replacement parsnip and compost that.

Hmm, a 50:50 split, I shall balance my guilt by putting it in the council green bin, their compost should get hot enough (although they won't collect it until March ), if I bought another I'd still have to consider the parsnip miles

[Chippy Minton]

I've never had the luxury of germinating P****snips never mind growing one but I would not have any problems in throwing it on the compost heap.

One bit of experience I can share, if you're going to grow them don't try to sow them on a windy day, I had to have a child following me round with handfuls of compost so when I dropped 3 seeds into the hole they could weigh them down

[bearded bloke]

Nutter

[Chippy Minton]

Nutter

It was like 'Whack-a-mole'

[SeleneMourie]

I put my canker ridden parsnips in the council bin as well last year. Got carrot fly on ALL carrots and canker on ALL parsnips! Gutted as the year before they were sown in a different area and all where lovely big and edible. No idea what i am going to do this year to grow them

[Bill HH]

Sometimes these outbreaks of disease are more to do with the conditions, the weather etc, these diseases are all around us all of time but thrive only when the conditions allow them to, this is why we can have a bad year for blight etc. So i guess composting it wont make a lot of difference, the fungus is in the soil anyway.

[Penellype]

I put my canker ridden parsnips in the council bin as well last year. Got carrot fly on ALL carrots and canker on ALL parsnips! Gutted as the year before they were sown in a different area and all where lovely big and edible. No idea what i am going to do this year to grow them

Canker is often made worse by carrot fly, which damage the root and let the canker in. Try covering both with fleece or environmesh and perhaps grow the parsnips in compost in a large pot.

[Chippy Minton]

Thanks for that Penellype, my carrots had really bad fly this year so maybe that made it worse! I'm not going togrow carrots up there this year, not enough control, carrots will be grown in the garden.