[Growster...]

Just recently, someone noted that when I was going to plant out some new parsnip seedlings to fill in a few gaps, that I'd better be vigilant as the state of the little chaps...

'Little'? Pah!

I'd made just nine 5" deep paper pots, and filled them with bog standard compost. They'd had four seeds each, and I'd waited three weeks for a result...

Most seeds germinated, but what was amazing was that even with the seed leaves being only a half inch total from side to side, (i.e.just over a quarter of an inch each) the tap root of the thinnings was the length of the paper pot, and rising... (or lengthening if you took English at 'O 'level).

They went in today, and while they'll never catch up the other chaps, we'll get something new, for very little (Growster's extra 5%).

Must keep an eye on the babes, just like all the rest of course...

[Trillium]

People forget when they start parsnips indoors just how fast and long that taproot gets. Its definitely not a crop you can keep indoors for long because once that taproot gets damaged, that's it for future growth.

[Kristen]

Might be best to cut (i.e. "execute" !!) the thinnings, rather than pulling them (to avoid any disturbance to the one you are leaving) ?

[Growster...]

They actually went in yesterday Kristen, and I checked them today and so far, so good...

It's all part of my 'add 5%' drive to beat the added problems of bungling eurocrats fiddling with EU control on everything that grows or poisons us...

[Kristen]

They actually went in yesterday Kristen, and I checked them today and so far, so good...

Yup, I expect they will be fine. I was just thinking out loud rather than meaning to imply it would be a problem, per se

[Growster...]

Oh, that's OK Kristen - of course it is!

Have a look at a bit part from 'Alien', on another post nearby, about 'watering'...;0)