[Pescador]

I sowed Gladiator on April 27th straight into the ground, and harvested these today.
I left the fork in the picture to give a scale reference.

[jambop]

Nice parsnips there ! And how black is that soil my soil has less colour to it and less stones very fertile but strange soil to work with. It is a bit like making up cement get the moisture right and it is great one drop too much though and you cannot work with it.

[JayG]

Two parsnips dug yesterday, grown next to each other in the same bed - one presumably hit a stone  , the other one didn't. 

I could go to the trouble of either trying to sift the stones out or using one of the other techniques to ensure an unobstructed root run, but I find it easier to pretend that doing nothing is both easier and makes digging them up sooo much more exciting!   

[Dev]

Its not been a good year for me in East Yorkshire with poor germination. The ones that did germinate, however, have grown enormous - Tender & True - using the dibber method described earlier. I saved seed a couple of years ago and had very good germination from T & T as it is open pollinated, so I think I'll try that again next year. The method described for carrots also works well here.

[sunshineband]

I saved parsnip seed four or five years back and some escaped before I could get it in the paper bag. They came up everywhere, and even now I get random parsnips.. two this year... so do they know they are not supposed to be viable after the first year?

[jaydig]

Mine are very hit and miss this year.  I have dug up beautiful, long, huge parsnips and the next ones to them in the row have been almost circular with a lot of roots growing from them, or mis-shaped lumps that are totally unusable. Fortunately I grew quite a lot, so should still have enough to use through the winter.

[Goosegirl]

Apologies gstrong but I laughed so hard at the pic of your carrot, I am an adult honestly but found it so amusing.

Small things please small minds I guess 

Not had my lotty long and going to try carrots and parsnips next year so come sept\oct I probably won't post much because i'll be on my back in my lotty in fits of laughter at my attempts, pics to follow...

Glad I didn't post a pic of a rather (actually very) rude parsnip I once grew. 

[snow white]

Out of three sowings I have the grand total of one parsnip.  Still in the ground.  Intend to have it Christmas day.  I do hope it is a decent one as it is my only one.  Well done you on getting them to germinate this year.

[Stewarty]

My best parsnips ever, this year. They were sown into 3 car tyres filled with the contents of last year's greenhouse growbags. The tyres are completely crammed with big parsnips, each trying to shoulder ....

[Batesy]

My best parsnips ever, this year. They were sown into 3 car tyres filled with the contents of last year's greenhouse growbags. The tyres are completely crammed with big parsnips, each trying to shoulder ....

Wow I will have to try this next year

[rowlandwells]

I'm  glad I'm not the only one who can't grow good  parsnips  tried paper pots peat pots direct sowing that was a dead loss so I looked up a bit of info on growing parsnips and this what I'm going to try next season

I found a piece of grey plastic 6x8 pipe pipe going to cut it into around  foot lengths put place in the razed bed about 4inches in the ground  fill the pipe with a compost mixture then sow 2 seeds per pipe probably cover the end of the pipe with cling film till they get going keeping an eye on the germination and  watered not to let the compost dry out  dry out

I'm going try the same  method with carrots in smaller pipes you can usually find some old plastic waste pipes going cheep in the recycling centres builders offcuts all it needs is a good clean avoid  the toilet waste pipe though
as I said this is going to be a trial this method for me but as I can't grow parsnips for toffee there's no loss only my pride to "call myself a gardener " 

[paul sadler]

HI i am new to the forum but have allotment gardening for over 45 years I have a solution try pipe's which should be 12 inch long and 4 inch wide with sieved compost this may help all the best for 2018 .

[JimB]

.
My parsnips were not too good this season, poor germination and the ones that grew were too large and runty!

Anyway my wife arrived home from Aldi with a pack with five perfect small parsnips in it, cost 19p, she said why bother growing them as they had the perfect taste as well!

[JayG]

Absolutely true of course, but where's the challenge in that?