Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?

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oldcow

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Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« on: March 22, 2010, 16:59 »
Until now all the seeds I used germinated successfully - cabbages, broccoli, peppers, aubergines, basil. However, I'm on the second attempt to get parsley to grow from seed, and I'm wondering if I have bad seeds or if it's really more difficult than other plants. My experience on both attempts is that more than half the seeds do not germinate at all; of the ones that germinate, two thirds are so weak and thin that they die soon after. I'm not talking about seedlings getting leggy after a while: they emerge from the soil already too thin. I'd say that none of the very few plants I have at the moment look like they have much chance of survival.
Is this normal? Or is there some special trick to get a better result? The variety is the Italian Gigante, and I soaked the seeds for 24 hours before putting them in a sutton pellet (3 per pellet, seen the low germination rate).

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madcat

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2010, 17:11 »
Parsley can be a pain ....  There is a saying that it has to go to the devil and back 9 times before it germinates.  I soak the seeds with boiling water and leave overnight before spreading very finely on the top of compost.  From then on I treat it like an annual flower, gentle with the water (it damps off out of spite >:() and lots of light, and it mostly seems to work.

The other two sayings I have heard is that it grows where there is a pregnancy and where the woman wears the trousers!   :D :D
All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about (Charles Kingsley)

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mumofstig

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2010, 17:19 »
I have never heard of soaking seed first  :blink: something new every day!

I sow mine in a small seed tray, compost is usually damp enough, put the lid on (or polybag )
and put somewhere warm till the germinate. It can take up to 3 weeks to come up, but not had failures as you describe, and it is the Italian one that I grow.

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Starling

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2010, 17:26 »

The other two sayings I have heard is that it grows where there is a pregnancy and where the woman wears the trousers!   :D :D
[/quote]

I am batting 2 for 2 at the moment so I am off to buy my parsley seeds tomorrow just in case there is any truth in it :D

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Lardman

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2010, 17:42 »
There is a saying that it has to go to the devil and back 9 times before it germinates. 

Showing your age there Madcat  :D

Parsley is about the only herb I have no problems with.  I do nothing special, no soaking just sprinkle and bag. Stick on window cill for a week.

Initially they look really weak but soon green up I've just taken my first (light) cutting from seeds sown in Jan.


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madcat

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2010, 17:52 »
It is one of the things I find fascinating about this gardening lark ...  how one person's easy-peasy is another's pain in the rear.  Now the one I really battle to grow is coriander.  It looks at me and either damps off or bolts to seed.  Leaves that I can crop?  Nah!! :(

It's like looking at an allotment site - just how can all those matching areas of mud be so different and show really different personalities? ...  Fascinating!   :D

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interlocutor

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2010, 19:28 »
Chuck the seeds in the soil tip a flask of boiling water over them cover lightly with soil and forget about them.

Plant near Asparagus if you have some as they like each other.

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Trillium

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2010, 21:30 »
I don't do well with parsley either so I simply make a small row for them outside, sprinkle seeds along the length, cover lightly with soil, and water every few days until they pop up. Then they're on their own. I usually end up with far more parsley than I can ever use but better than none. They really hate fussing so that's probably why they do better direct seeded.

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Loubs

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Re: Growing parsley: what am I doing wrong?
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2010, 21:34 »
Hee hee!
I can grow parsley & coriander, but I just cannot grow Sage, even if I buy as a pot plant - it always dies on me! :(



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