[dmg]

Now I am moving Job and will be home every night I was going to chit some parsnips and sweetcorn.
What is the usual time they take to sprout ? I can use a heated or unheated bedroom

Dmg

[Gardener and Rabbit]

On a warm windowsill, with fresh seed, and using the damp kitchen-towel method, the first parsnips will normally start chitting after about 3 days.  The slower ones will continue to chit over the next week or so. After that they seem to be duds. 

[Goosegirl]

DMG - not wanting to hijack your thread but, if you chit seeds on damp kitchen roll, can you plant them by cutting the paper into pieces (or whole and straight into the ground) by laying the paper flat on the surface and sprinkling compost on top? I'm going to do my sweetcorn this weekend, plus some other seeds.

[JayG]

The ideal germination temperature for parsnip seed is 20C, for sweet corn 25C - you don't need to be too picky about it, a warm room should suit both of them.

Sweet corn should germinate within 2-3 days - pot them up as soon as you see the roots appearing to avoid them either drying out or getting damaged. Make sure that the paper they are chitted on is damp rather than soaking wet or they may rot.

I did try chitting parsnip seed last year and it took about 5 days for germination to take place - I don't plan to do that this year as I had a few failures even of the germinated seeds, and it was all quite fiddly, so I'll go back to my usual method of 'station sowing' a pinch every 6-8 inches (spacing seems to depend on what mood I'm in at the time!  )

Edit: Secret of good and relatively quick parsnip germination outdoors is to leave it quite late - at least another week for me where I am.

[dmg]

Thanks for the info,
GG I would never of thought of doing it that way, thanks
The parsnips will only be in pots as my soils is heavy clay and I will have to have the sweet corn in paper pots until its warm enough to plant out

Dmg