The Great Parsnip Experiment

[Cadalot]

And so the great Parsnip Experiment starts.

Kitchen rolls are about 20mm plus twice the height of a toilet roll or 220mm high, so my thinking is I will fill with compost, chit some parsnips on damp kitchen towel in a plastic Chinese Meal container and then sow in the top of the kitchen roll.



I have a Soil Auger and can drill holes in the allotment bed and place the parsnip and Kitchen roll in the hole and fill around with compost. This time I'm going to use the top of a plastic milk bottle as a funnel for filling the kitchen rolls.

[bikermike]

Looks interesting!
do you know what varieties you are planting?

I use a fabric softener bottle (cut up) as a funnel for kitchen roll tubes (milk bottles get very flimsy when you cut them up.

We use recycled loo roll, which is great, but the cores are smaller. Took a while to find something that was a good fit.

I like the auger - where did you get that from and how much was it?

[Cadalot]

Looks interesting! Do you know what varieties you are planting?
I like the auger - where did you get that from and how much was it?

I have parsnip seed that was given to me from a plot neighbour that I have let grow for two years and have harvested seeds and have no idea what variety it is, plus a pack of Student that came with a magazine.

The Auger is one that I use for taking soil samples, where I used to work cleared out a store cupboard and they bought new kit and we were allowed to purchase the older kit for peanuts if we wanted anything, then it was recorded as sold to use and no one could say we nicked it. I have do idea what a new set costs but I recall paying about £5 for two heads, three rods, one that was slightly bent and a handle.

Here is the nearest thing but you have to get a quote as there is no standard price https://www.humboldtmfg.com/soil-aug...k-connect.html

[chris_m]

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And so the great Parsnip Experiment starts.

Kitchen rolls are about 20mm plus twice the height of a toilet roll or 220mm high, so my thinking is I will fill with compost, chit some parsnips on damp kitchen towel in a plastic Chinese Meal container and then sow in the top of the kitchen roll.

I've already done that, except I direct sowed Palace in the compost rather than sprouting them first, then bunged the tubes on a heated propagator under my grow light. Most of the seeds came up, far more than did last year in the ground. They are currently in my unheated porch, until after the anticipated cold spell at the weekend

I have a Soil Auger and can drill holes in the allotment bed and place the parsnip and Kitchen roll in the hole and fill around with compost.

I don't have one of those but I do have a bit of drainpipe that will serve a similar purpose

This time I'm going to use the top of a plastic milk bottle as a funnel for filling the kitchen rolls.

That's a good idea (or bikermike's fabric softener bottle) - I filled mine by just tipping the compost on/in/around with a large tray underneath to catch the spillage. Never thought of using a funnel