Parsnip germination with good results

[Scoot]

Is it best to grow Parsnip in seed trays first and then transplant them out once the frosts have gone? Or just plant them straight in the soil. Just I have seen some people say, start them indoors first and then watched videos of people saying just sow them straight out into the garden in early May. Thoughts?

[BertieFox]

I like the plank (cover and shade the ground) idea, especially as we can suffer from very dry conditions in spring here. We have had some years when carrots have never germinated too, so I would imagine this method would be equally effective with those. The key point is to keep checking for germination and ensuring no nasty little black beasties are getting under the plank and nibbling the new shoots.

I have tried the pre-germination trick with parsnip seed (using vermiculite) but I find it quite time consuming and fiddly ("faffly?") to move the seed into the positions in the open ground, and if you leave it too long, you will get forking and similar problems.

Try whatever works for you, but I shall definitely be trying the plank method this spring. Thanks for suggesting it.

[Shadylane]

Is it best to grow Parsnip in seed trays first and then transplant them out once the frosts have gone? Or just plant them straight in the soil. Just I have seen some people say, start them indoors first and then watched videos of people saying just sow them straight out into the garden in early May. Thoughts?

If you sow them in seed trays you will end up with monstrosities. The roots will fork and end up in a tangled mess. The only successful way you can start them off indoors is by using toilet roll tubes, but even that is risky, as the tap root will be emerging out of the bottom by the time the true leaves have sprouted.

Sow them direct and don't worry about frosts because they certainly don't. I had a rubbish year with them last year. I forgot to take compost up to cover them, as our soil bakes preventing them from emerging. We got a few but not many. This year will be better - I have decided.

[Scoot]

Thanks, I shall just plant them out in the garden next month.

[Python15]

A quick question about the toilet roll method. Whats to prevent the tube from disintegrating once wet? Toilet roll tubes do not generally hold together well when wet!

[Alison]

They're supposed to disintegrate so the parsnip can grow through the card. You plant them out really quickly and if they disintegrate before then it's down to over watering.

[Python15]

I think I may have expressed myself badly, apologies. I assumed the tubes would rot down once planted but was unsure of watering levels to prevent them falling apart beforehand. It must be a thin line between too much water and not enough?

[Kristen]

Is it best to grow Parsnip in seed trays first and then transplant them out once the frosts have gone? Or just plant them straight in the soil. Just I have seen some people say, start them indoors first and then watched videos of people saying just sow them straight out into the garden in early May. Thoughts?

There are two clearly separate camps on this one IME.

1) Sow direct outside - either in rows and thin out, or "station sow" half a dozen seeds at each plant-position and then thin. Optionally make a cone shaped hole, for the Parsnip root to grow down into, and fill it with fine soil before sowing (to make it easy for the root to grow, and reduce risk of it forking - this is all the more important on stony ground)

2) Then there are folk, like me, that prefer to start them off germinating on damp kitchen paper and then the moment a root starts to sprout from the seed I "sow" the seed in either a loo roll or a "pot" made from rolling a sheet of newspaper around an aerosol can (benefit is the newspaper pots can be any depth you like, mine are much taller than loo rolls, which gives more time before the tap root reaches the bottom).

Clearly much more faff than direct sowing outside. The benefits as I see it, for me, are:

Sow when I want to. Doesn't matter what the weather is, or if I am working long hours / shifts and not home in daylight hours. It is, however, critical that I am around at the time when they will need planting out, and that the weather is OK at that time. There is a period of about a 10 day window, and its a month later than if I sowed outside direct, so on my heavy clay much more time for soil to warm up, dry out a bit, and for me to be able to get onto it.

When I plant out my Parsnip "plant" it is about 6 weeks later than if I sowed it in the ground direct. That is 6 weeks in which weeds would have made a lot of growth. When I plant out I hoe off all the weeds, and by the time they are growing back strongly, a month or so later, the Parsnip plants have 4 weeks growth on them and the weeds are no competition. By contrast Parsnip seeds which are sown direct have a harder time competing with weeds, and thus there are recommendations to, for example, sow Radish in the row with the Parsnip seed to be able to clearly see where the rows are when weeding. Some of the extra-faff in my method is offset in the direct-sow method by the need to carefully hand weed the rows and thin the plants out. I think its even-stevens, others will disagree!, take your pick

I ensure that every year I have a bed of Parsnips at perfect spacing with no gaps.

The main issue issue I have with direct sowing, and why I don't do it, is that germination time is much slower than the damp kitchen-paper method. My heavy clay is very cold and wet early in the year, and that makes Parsnip germination slow. Its easily a month, maybe 6 weeks, before the seedlings appear. If they fail to appear it is then getting really late to make a second sowing. By comparison when seed is put on damp kitchen paper the little root appears in a week or so, if it doesn't appear I've only lost a week and can have another go. After then "sowing" the germinated seed in my newspaper pot it is another couple of weeks before the [seed] leaves start to appear. Thus I am much more confident that my seed has germinated, and that I am only planting out "pots" that I know have a viable plant.

The half-way-house that some people adopt is to first germinate the seed on damp kitchen paper but then, instead of sowing in Newspaper pots or Loo rolls, "sow" the chitted seeds directly outside, confident that only seeds that are viable and have already started germinating are being sown.

Recap: the issue at stake here is that Parsnips are much slower to germinate than other veg ... for most other veg it is fine to just "sow and let them get on with it" because they germinate quickly.

A quick question about the toilet roll method. Whats to prevent the tube from disintegrating once wet? Toilet roll tubes do not generally hold together well when wet!

Surprisingly they don't tend to do that (nor pots made from Newspaper). They do need careful handling when planting out, compared to things in plastic pots, but its not a huge issue. I suspect that part of the reason is that the tops dry out, and wick-up some water from the paper/cardboard below, which keeps some structure to them. Having said that I never let my newspaper pots sit in water (when I water them) and I never assume that I can just "rearrange" them on the bench as I could with plastic pots. They are in trays, will live in those trays right up until they are planted out, I will carry a tray direct to the plot and only move / separate the pots at the moment when I plant them. So a little bit of "kid gloves" is required.

[BertieFox]

As well as sowing under the board as suggested, I am also trying getting them started in a paper tube. I take an old piece of A4 scrap paper, roll it lengthways into a tube, glue the edge, then cut it with scissors into three pieces. I put the tubes in a small seed tray and fill them with a vermiculite/compost mix and sow into these. Keep somewhere warm, like a windowsill, and then plant out as soon as conditions outside are ok.

The paper will rot down more easily than toilet roll cardboard, and it is possible to move the whole tube and plant it without root disturbance, and get it at the right spacing for large parsnips.

I will evaluate next winter whether the direct sown or 'tube' parsnips are the best.

[Scoot]

There are two clearly separate camps on this one IME.

1) Sow direct outside - either in rows and thin out, or "station sow" half a dozen seeds at each plant-position and then thin. Optionally make a cone shaped hole, for the Parsnip root to grow down into, and fill it with fine soil before sowing (to make it easy for the root to grow, and reduce risk of it forking - this is all the more important on stony ground)

2) Then there are folk, like me, that prefer to start them off germinating on damp kitchen paper and then the moment a root starts to sprout from the seed I "sow" the seed in either a loo roll or a "pot" made from rolling a sheet of newspaper around an aerosol can (benefit is the newspaper pots can be any depth you like, mine are much taller than loo rolls, which gives more time before the tap root reaches the bottom).

Clearly much more faff than direct sowing outside. The benefits as I see it, for me, are:

Sow when I want to. Doesn't matter what the weather is, or if I am working long hours / shifts and not home in daylight hours. It is, however, critical that I am around at the time when they will need planting out, and that the weather is OK at that time. There is a period of about a 10 day window, and its a month later than if I sowed outside direct, so on my heavy clay much more time for soil to warm up, dry out a bit, and for me to be able to get onto it.

When I plant out my Parsnip "plant" it is about 6 weeks later than if I sowed it in the ground direct. That is 6 weeks in which weeds would have made a lot of growth. When I plant out I hoe off all the weeds, and by the time they are growing back strongly, a month or so later, the Parsnip plants have 4 weeks growth on them and the weeds are no competition. By contrast Parsnip seeds which are sown direct have a harder time competing with weeds, and thus there are recommendations to, for example, sow Radish in the row with the Parsnip seed to be able to clearly see where the rows are when weeding. Some of the extra-faff in my method is offset in the direct-sow method by the need to carefully hand weed the rows and thin the plants out. I think its even-stevens, others will disagree!, take your pick

I ensure that every year I have a bed of Parsnips at perfect spacing with no gaps.

The main issue issue I have with direct sowing, and why I don't do it, is that germination time is much slower than the damp kitchen-paper method. My heavy clay is very cold and wet early in the year, and that makes Parsnip germination slow. Its easily a month, maybe 6 weeks, before the seedlings appear. If they fail to appear it is then getting really late to make a second sowing. By comparison when seed is put on damp kitchen paper the little root appears in a week or so, if it doesn't appear I've only lost a week and can have another go. After then "sowing" the germinated seed in my newspaper pot it is another couple of weeks before the [seed] leaves start to appear. Thus I am much more confident that my seed has germinated, and that I am only planting out "pots" that I know have a viable plant.

The half-way-house that some people adopt is to first germinate the seed on damp kitchen paper but then, instead of sowing in Newspaper pots or Loo rolls, "sow" the chitted seeds directly outside, confident that only seeds that are viable and have already started germinating are being sown.

Recap: the issue at stake here is that Parsnips are much slower to germinate than other veg ... for most other veg it is fine to just "sow and let them get on with it" because they germinate quickly.



Surprisingly they don't tend to do that (nor pots made from Newspaper). They do need careful handling when planting out, compared to things in plastic pots, but its not a huge issue. I suspect that part of the reason is that the tops dry out, and wick-up some water from the paper/cardboard below, which keeps some structure to them. Having said that I never let my newspaper pots sit in water (when I water them) and I never assume that I can just "rearrange" them on the bench as I could with plastic pots. They are in trays, will live in those trays right up until they are planted out, I will carry a tray direct to the plot and only move / separate the pots at the moment when I plant them. So a little bit of "kid gloves" is required.

Thanks very much. I think I may try out the first thing you mentioned and just sow them direct into the soil after making a cone shaped hole filled with fine compost.

I might also try 20 or so of the rolled up newspaper method as well. Do you just use a bit masking tape to keep it together? How long should these be, roughly?

What I will do with both of these methods though is soak all my seeds on a piece of toilet role first until the roots pop through then sow them into the garden direct and also into the top of my rolled up newspapers topped up with fine soil/compost. Just to confirm, what I am planning/just said should work?

[Kristen]

I might also try 20 or so of the rolled up newspaper method as well. Do you just use a bit masking tape to keep it together? How long should these be, roughly?

I just tuck the bottom in "to keep it together". I think mine are about 5" tall. Some pictures on my blog:

https://kgarden.wordpress.com/tips/h...rom-newspaper/

what I am planning/just said should work?

Sounds OK to me

[Scoot]

Thank you. Just made myself one using the pictures in your blog. I shall be trying all these methods to see which 1 is the most successful as this is the first year I have grown Parsnips.

[Scoot]

Was just wondering what you do to fill the bottom of the loo roles?

Because surely when you lift them out the seed tray to put in the ground, a load of soil will fall out the bottom?

[Tomatoe]

I use a bit of newspaper, doubled over and pushed in. Keeps the soil in place and will quickly rot down/move when the roots are big enough.

[Scoot]

I was thinking about that actually. Think I am not all sorted in my mind as to what to do with my parsnip seed. Thanks everyone.