[AlaninCarlisle]

Every spring I sow successive drills of parsnip at approximately 10-day intervals starting in early April. As soon as plants appear, I cease any further sowing. It might sound like a potential waste but seed is cheap, space is no problem and bad experiences in the past have driven me to this kind of overkill.

This year four successive sowings failed to produce anything other than the odd germination and it was only the sowing I made on 22nd May that was successful. It left me wondering how the commercial growers manage to make a living. Any ideas?

[sunshineband]

I have had issues this year with parsnip germination, and usually have no trouble at all. I ended up re-sowing mid May too (successfully)

No idea what commercial growers do 😔

[jaydig]

This year my parsnips came up like weeds, but I have twice sown the carrots with little or no result.  Can't win em all!  Will try with the carrots again this coming week.

[arh]

For a minute there, I thought you was going to say that they had been fully grown Alan, 

[compostqueen]

I have one!   😃

[greenjay]

my row is very gappy this year. must admit to using last years seeds.
enough for that special meal (towards the end of the year)!

[AnneB]

I never sow mine before May.  I usually have great success but this year I needed 2 attempts, the first successful sowing was murdered by slugs.

[victoria park]

I suspect commercial growers get the best seed. I often wonder with short life seeds like parsnips if some of the packets have a quality control issue, especially with one particular well known supplier. My problem seeds always seem to come from their own packed seeds in my discounted allotment association bulk order. We are all reassessing what to do about it.

I too have had my worst year ever with three erratic sowings in paper pots, between end of March and end of April. Have never had such poor results, and it suddenly dawned on me it might also be to do with the cheap compost I foolishly bought, as my onion seeds ( also from the same supplier ) were also unusually a big problem.
I sowed direct a fall back insurance row on 3 May with new seed and they have done really well, so with all 4 sowings I probably have too many now 

[rosiecider]

I usually dont have much of a problem with my parsnip I grow  Gladiator but this year out of 1 packet I got 1 plant, have resown and still not looking good

[Gardener and Rabbit]

That's why I chit the seed, and normally grow on in tubes before planting out. This year I was a bit late, so chitted what was left in a pack of second year seed.  6 germinated, so they went straight into the soil, and have all come through in a short row. Don't seem to have any problems provided they've shown their viable by chitting.

[sarajane]

Sowed mine 2 weeks ago in newspaper pots and all have germinated. They went in the ground yesterday even though just 2 leaves are through.
I know if 2 leaves are visible the root will almost be an inch long.
This is now the only way I do parsnips.......all learnt from this site 3 years ago.

[snow white]

Sowed loads.  Have one hardy plant coming through.   

[AlaninCarlisle]

Does anyone know how commercial growers manage to grow them so successfully.? I mean it's hard to imagine a vast acreage of Lincolnshire fields being planted with paper-pots or following my method of multiple sowings until success is achieved

[victoria park]

Careful management, especially of seed quality and moisture

https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/plants/fruit-and-vegetables/vegetables/other-vegetable-crops/commercial-production-of-parsnips


One of the reasons I am so fussy is the subsequent forking problem as some of my beds have too much stone, and I need to dib in the seedlings or sometimes prepare seed stations with a spike down to a foot deep. I would imagine commercial growers have sorted their stone problems. Us allotment folk try to grow anything up o 40 different crops on roughly the same soil base. Don't think that happens in commercial growing. Different areas of the country grow different commercial crops suited to the area and local soils.

[Thrutchington]

Mine have started off ok, albeit a few gaps that needed filling in, carrots the same, might dig out all the soil from the root bed and replace it with new at the season end, rotation is awkward due to heavy soil in some other parts of the plot.