Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: mellowmick on June 12, 2006, 10:54
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On holiday last week and, due to the weather, spent most of it up on my plot. I was 'realigning' my root veg, as the rows of foliage had come up in anything but the straight lines I remember planting them in. Anyway, after replanting my parsnips, I notice they'd all wilted. Time and water had no appreciable effect. On consulting the seed packet, I found I'd actually planted TURNIPS instead! And on the packet, in big letters, was 'Do Not Transplant'. I'd only had each of them out of the earth for a minute and a half at most, but after three days of them lying prone I was convinced I'd lost the lot. Luckily, pretty regular watering (in blazing sunshine) saw all but one of them recover. And I've now planted parsnips as well, which is what I'd meant to plant in the first place! Just a warning tale for any of you out there with turnips. :!:
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Lucky break there - you have to have some luck with you at times :)
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Most root veg do not tolerate transplanting, as far as I know. Unless they're extremely small and still in the seed leaf stage...
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Realigning my root veg is a bridge too far for me. My rows can be a bit scruffy.
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I'm with noshed on this one - it doesn't follow that having veg in straight line formations makes you a better gardener!
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I love those French 'potagers' where they have blocks of veggies laid out for decorative effect rather than rotation groups etc.
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'realigning'
The chap who has the plot next door to my humans says his father (who would be about 100 now!!) always grew his parsnips in a seed tray. When they hatched he would pot them on so they grew about 6 leaves. He then planted them out. Parsnips are notoriously difficult germinators so you get lots of gaps if you plant them direct in the ground (apparently). By sowing in a seed tray and then planting out ensures you get nice full rows! My humans did this this year and just as well. She only got 10 plants!!! But they look nice in a little block in her potager. The neighbour's parsnips from last year are 6 ft high and in full flower, (he seldom eats his stuff, funny that :shock: ) but they look very pretty, so, if he doesn't come and dig them up before the seed has set, we'll have some to sow next year!
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I agree about the parsnips. I planted 40ft of rows this year and two parsnips germinated. Then I read in an excellent book, that the seed doesn't survive the winter well, then I read some more and it said to plan them in guttering and transplant using a chunk of compost rather than just the plant. That way they get fooled that they haven't really been tranplanted.
So I bought some more seed and planted it in tall pots in the plant house (plastic greenhouse thingy). I now have 50 which I am hoping to plant out in the next week or so.
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Well! 50 you lucky thing you. She has sown some more parsnips so we'll have to see. Meanwhile her little patch of 10 are coming along. I will remind her to put up the picture of the parsnip plants run to seed. They are hugeh!