[cadalot]

Kirstin & DD Thank you

I had a container like the one above this year and kept the kitchen towel damp but never got anything that looked like the photo DD put the link too.

[Yorkshire Lass]

You have to be patient mine took ages and then only took hold when I put then on a sunny window sill 

[Kristen]

I had a container like the one above this year and kept the kitchen towel damp but never got anything that looked like the photo DD put the link too.

Parsnip seed has very short viability, so rarely worth trying to use last-year's-packet - dunno if that might have been the problem?

Chitted like my photo, and using this-season's seed, mine germinate in 7 - 14 days.  By comparison sown in the ground, when cold and wet early in the year, its likely to be "ages".

[sarajane]

After years of sowing direct, none terminated this year.  As a last resort I respected in 'ritchies pots' and planted out at the first sign of greenery.  Best parsnips ever with no need to thin out so I'll be doing the same in 2015

[cadalot]

I had a container like the one above this year and kept the kitchen towel damp but never got anything that looked like the photo DD put the link too.

Parsnip seed has very short viability, so rarely worth trying to use last-year's-packet - dunno if that might have been the problem?

Chitted like my photo, and using this-season's seed, mine germinate in 7 - 14 days.  By comparison sown in the ground, when cold and wet early in the year, its likely to be "ages".

They were current seeds, from the same pack as the ones I put in toilet rolls that had germinated, but the ones on the kitchen paper just didn't form roots.

[Kristen]

They were current seeds, from the same pack as the ones I put in toilet rolls that had germinated, but the ones on the kitchen paper just didn't form roots.

Interesting.  Something about the kitchen paper perhaps?  Scented? / Pretty printed  pattern? (although I'm clutching at straws of course!)

[beesrus]

I'm sure parsnip seed doesn't last as long as other veg, but I can't say I've ever had a problem germinating last year's bought parsnip seeds, and I don't like wasting seed. So to check viability in February of each year before I buy new,  and to avoid  some wasted weeks guessing and losing the audit trail, I slip a pot of 5 or 6 seeds into the electric propagator. Ten days will tell me if that seed will still be viable later in the Spring under real world conditions. It nearly always is. Never tried 2 year old seed though.

[surbie100]

2-year old seed works too. I let my chitted seeds dry out though...

[Snoop]

After years of sowing direct, none terminated this year.  As a last resort I respected in 'ritchies pots' and planted out at the first sign of greenery.  Best parsnips ever with no need to thin out so I'll be doing the same in 2015

Likewise. I don't know what variety you grow, but I grow Guernsey, a 'stumpy' variety and they work a treat in paper pots. After peeling and trimming, mine this year weigh in between 500 and 600 g apiece.

Had great success with carrot seed tape last year, so will be trying some White Gem parsnip tape this year for a bit of variety, with some Guernseys as back-ups/extras.

[Kristen]

I grow Guernsey, a 'stumpy' variety and they work a treat in paper pots. After peeling and trimming, mine this year weigh in between 500 and 600 g apiece.

I need to try that this year.  I grow in newspaper tubes and mostly mine grow stumpy (perhaps as a result), but digging up a Parsnip that si a couple of feet long, in my heavy soil, is just a non starter, and I don't see any use for the thin whippy end of the root in the kitchen - on the show bench it would no doubt be different