[gardengnome]

I planted them directly into the ground and, after four weeks, nothing except weeds.  Then I planted them in a propagator but they dried out on a sunny day.  Then put them on a piece of damp kitchen towel by a window to start germination.  Nope!  Now I am soaking the seeds before I plant them in propagators again ... see what happens!

[someoneorother]

Is it fresh seed? Parsnip seed 'goes off' very quickly, you need to buy new seed every year.

[Salmo]

Make a V shaped drill with a hoe. Dribble water along the bottom with a can so that it is soaked. Put seeds in. Cover over and tamp down firmly with thw back of a rake. Do not water again until you see the first seedlings.

[SG6]

Planted mine direct in the garden about 4-5 weeks back, all except 4 or 5 have germination. Looking forward to a crop of about 30.

Did seem to take longer then others to show through and was a little concerned after 2  or 3 weeks but one by one they slowly appeared.

[waxwing]

I always start mine in toilet rolls filled with compost, left in the greenhouse. Never had a problem.


Steve

[shokkyy]

I did a few in a bucket and they all came straight up. Then I stuck 2 seeds in a few kitchen roll inners cut in a half - and both seeds have come up in every one

I'm doing a comparison, actually, the kitchen roll jobs are going into the garden and I'm going to see whether or not they do better than the ones in the bucket. I hate sowing small seeds directly into the ground because I'm utterly incapable of not dropping hundreds of them instead of a few.

[azubah]

Some people seem to be able to get parsnip seeds to grow and some, including me, just can't do it. I have seen parsnips growing in cracks in paving that have self sown the previous autumn from parsnips gone to seed, but my carefully sown ones just won't co-operate.
I can't understand it. My dh sows them in toilet roll insides and gets good results, but not if sown direct.

[SkipRat]

I always start mine in toilet rolls filled with compost, left in the greenhouse. Never had a problem.


Steve

Thats the way that I do them and works every time..

[gardengnome]

They were new seeds this year.  This might sound a silly question, but when sowing in pots in the greenhouse, how often should you water them?  Can you overwater seeds?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this lot to germinate, keep checking them!

Cheers for the advice!

[JayG]

Most seeds need a good initial soaking to hydrate them and start off the germination process, but can potentially rot if you continue to keep them too wet.

I find a good initial soaking followed by keeping the compost just moist usually works (the other important consideration with parsnips is patience; they really like to spend a long time just thinking about it!) 

[mumofstig]

I agree  mine took 3 weeks for the first few, the rest came up in the 4th week.

So patience really is a virtue 

[sion01]

I read a really good tip for starting off parsnip seeds in a book about ornamental kitchen gardens.It suggested planting a not too rampant hardy annual with them.Something like love in th mist(nigella) or something else with feathary leaves that won't shade out the slower emerging parsnip seeds.this had the advantage of marking out the the row and the annual could be sacrificed if they were too thick.The author suggested a 50/50 mix of annual to parsnip seed.
she said she did the same with carrots as well which seemed to deter carrot fly presumably because they had a harder time finding the carrot.I'm going to try sowing a mix of spring onion and carrot seeds just for the hell of it.The spring onions will be out well before the carrots and hopefully the carrot/onion fly will get a migrane.I don't see why spring onion with parsnip would't work either if you wanted to stick with veg or even radish.(I read it in a book so don't know if it really works and won't be held legally responsible for any mishaps )

[Kristen]

Then put them on a piece of damp kitchen towel by a window to start germination.  Nope! 

That sounds like the seed is not viable.

The seed needs to be covered - either with a Tupperware box / lid, or some cling film, otherwise the kitchen paper will dry out and the seeds will stop germinating.

Seed placed on damp kitchen paper, with a cover to keep the moisture in and humidity high, should germinate just fine - and is a useful test of the viability of the seed, even if you don't want the "faff" of germinating it that way, and then transplanting out.

[gardengnome]

THanks for the help all, I've got one seedling now!!  Hopefully more to come!  It's possible I've overwatered seeds and they've rotted, or there's something wrong with the packet.  I'll keep persevering !