Pruning parsnips!

[Primrose]

Well, not really, but their leaves are now so tall they're swamping the row of veg on their shadier side. Will it stunt their root growth if I give their height a slight prune? ( I need to plant vegs closer together than normally recommended because I,m short of growing space but they seem to have gone really berserk this year)

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i have taken about half the leaves off before, and it didn't seem to make much differece to the actual parsnip. But do be careful not to get the sap on your skin, or you could end up with some server blisters.

[Primrose]

Thanks for that OH and especially the warning about blisters. I belong to the Monty Don school of gardening, ie hardly ever wear gloves for most chores so will remember that when I get the snippers out.

[Elaine]

Good advice dear OH, regarding the effect parsnips have on the skin.

A lady on our allotment site showed me her ankles and calves recently and asked me what I thought had bitten her.(she always gardens in a skirt in the summer) She sort of scoffed a bit when I said they looked more like burns....until the next day, when they had blistered rather badly. I asked if she had been in contact with parsnips and she had been amongst the rows, weeding them.
After a trip to her GP where she told him my "diagnosis", he said I was absolutely right. A mutual friend on Facebook sent me a message saying the lady was now referring to me as Doctor Elaine.
It took a couple of weeks for her blisters to completely heal and were very painful.

[Westi]

I'm really anxious as well as my neighbour at lottie has left last years in the ground right near my fence. They are well over my head & leaning towards my plot! Just ignoring it at present but time will come when I have to do something as already starting to shade my toms!

Neighbour already apologised & given permission to trim as has a new job & away on training but....?

Westi

[Ricard with an H]

I haven't seen parsnips in the green and totally of the top of my head, I wonder if the parsnip plant is related to rag-wort.

When I first came to Pembrokeshire it was the first time I met rag-wort, touching it and even worse if you shredded it with a brush-cutter you not only get redness and sores going to blisters but also flue-like symptoms.

I'm surprised rag-wort is only poisonous to live stock because it's a very nasty plant to even touch with bare hands.

[Cider Boys]

As oldherbacious and Elaine have warned, try not to get the sap onto the skin. As you probably realise it is not the actual sap that leads to the burn it is that the sap renders the skin highly sensitive to sunlight which then affects the skin. Parsnips are usually harvested in times of low sunlight (late autumn and winter) so the problem is not apparent but during the summer it can cause very nasty burns that take some time to heal.

Barney

[peter]

Umbelifferous plant, same broad family as carrot and hogweed I think.

Hogweed is much worse and giant hogweed ten times worse than its little sibling.

[Primrose]

But presumably the leaves rot down with no su sequent adverse adverse effect on the soil if they are composted down? I must have been lucky in the past as I,ve often handled parsnip leaves with bare hands with no ill effects.

[peter]

That assumption is, I believe, correct.