Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Broadhaven on April 02, 2010, 11:25
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Am I ok to sow my parsnip seeds outside yet?
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Im not doing mine it still bit chilly.
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As above
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Ill be starting mine off inside soon in riches paper pots
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Ill be starting mine off inside soon in riches paper pots
i personally cant see the benefit of parsnips in paper pots Jamie your making work for yourself ).
I will wait 1 or 2 weeks and sow direct (as long as its warmed up abit).
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Ill be starting mine off inside soon in riches paper pots
i personally cant see the benefit of parsnips in paper pots Jamie your making work for yourself ).
I will wait 1 or 2 weeks and sow direct (as long as its warmed up abit).
Thanks for the warning, Ill do as you say, tar :D
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Having always ended up with very large and rather woody parsnips, this year I'm station sowing them about the third week this April, and the same for my brussels as they always are ready well before Crimbo time.
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Ill be starting mine off inside soon in riches paper pots
i personally cant see the benefit of parsnips in paper pots Jamie your making work for yourself ).
I will wait 1 or 2 weeks and sow direct (as long as its warmed up abit).
Thanks for the warning, Ill do as you say, tar :D
I usually sow direct and plant a few in paper pots just in case a few fail and i have spaces in my rows to fill in:)
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A good tip to aid germination is to nestle the seed in a tiny bit of quality seed compost.
Works for me ;)
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Mine went in last week under clear polly in the form of a small tunnel. It's nice and warm & protected under there today.
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I sow my parsnips in paper tubes and as soon as the first seed leaves appear I harden them off then make a hole with an iron bar and drop them in the advantage being they have a head start on the weeds and they don't need thinning first time I did it last year and had the best crop ever
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I sow my parsnips in paper tubes and as soon as the first seed leaves appear I harden them off then make a hole with an iron bar and drop them in the advantage being they have a head start on the weeds and they don't need thinning first time I did it last year and had the best crop ever
That's what i am doing, put individual seeds into 6" paper pots today, then I'll just make a hole in the beds and pop them in.
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Me too. Though to give the parsnip absolutely NO EXCUSES with regard to forking, as I plant & drop the paper pot into the hole I tear away the paper base. :lol:
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mine went in two weeks ago ,i have an old water tank filled with compost,,no stones in it!!
i've had it covered all winter,sowed them under glass,
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I am a lot further south than most of you so......
But mine went in a couple of weeks ago which is very late for me. Normally I put them in in February.
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We have one guy on our allotment site who dosen't sow his parsnips till the last week in april the first week in may, He is still digging them up now and there delicous. he hates large parsnips these are still big nips.
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I've sown mine last week, but I had the ground covered with black plastic and a cloche to warm the soil up first. The cloche is still over them, but I haven't been back to look see if anything is up yet.
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i personally cant see the benefit of parsnips in paper pots Jamie your making work for yourself ).
Just my 2p worth:
Its a lot of work (making pots, filling them, chitting seed, pricking out, watering and nuturing)
Flip-side:
Germination guaranteed, provides the plant with 6" - 7" depth (in the case of my paper pots :)) of nice soil to form the Parsnip in.
Failed germination (which tends to take a while anyway) when sowing direct can mean that re-sowing is very late in the season.
I get a plant exactly where I want it - no gaps, no thinning, etc.
Edit: Additional point: Bed doesn't have to be ready in time :) can sow the seeds at the right time and buy a few extra weeks to get the soil ready, a bonus on my heavy, sometimes waterlogged, clay - particularly in a late season like this one.
For folk with lovely soil this doesn't apply!
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I`m hoping to sow them (direct) on tuesday. :D
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I'm trying last year's seed and planted straight into the prepared bed with no protection over a week ago.
I reckon there's plenty of time to resow if they don't germinate and if they do they'll be strong plants!!!
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Seems to be fifty fifty about the use of paper pots or not :D typical gardening , thats why we all love it ;)
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I just do the following which is dead easy, fuss-free and the times I have done it before I had 100% success:
Given the seed's shelf-life is not great, given the seed packets are not expensive, and given the sheer number of seeds in a packet.
(1) dib holes about 1cm deep along the area I want to use for parnips
(2) into each hole pop in 4-5 seeds (if more blow in, then so be it!). This way it is almost a dead cert that each hole will result in a parsnip eventually.
(3) cover with soil, water
That's it.
I did about 40 a few weeks ago (warmed up soil for a week or so first by covering) and covered where I had sowed with fleece. All "stations" now have germinations - later I am going to thin where there are several germinations per station.
And I will do another batch of parnips the same way next week but without warming the ground.
In the rare event that a parsnip does not germinate in one of those holes, you can simply use one of the thinned germinations from another hole- just pull it carefully and pop it into another hole and fill in. I used to do that in the past and that always worked.