Kitchen Garden Forum

Have just dug up my first parsnips of the winter. What a disappointment! Nice fat tops for the first three inches, then nothing but spikey whiskered roots about a centimetre wide. Could this have been due to the summer heatwave? I tried to keep them well watered and the summer leaves looked very lush and healthy but perhaps the water just didn't penetrate far enough to encourage the roots to grow sufficiently deep? Anybody else had the same problem?

Just to cheer you up Primrose, my parsnips are to big this year, they have got so long that i keep snapping the bottoms off, thats even digging them with a flat tined fork.
I must say though they have got a bit of canker.
Parsnips can really be quite tiresome sometimes, with mine i just sow a few seeds at six inch spacings, then thin to one plant and just keep weed free, i only water them an hour before i thin them ,then thats it for watering.
With yours being wide at the top and small at the bottom, it sounds as either the ground has been a bit hard for them to get down, or they have been relying on you watering them and have not gone down looking for water.
I know some varietes seem to do better on different soils, on my heavyish soil, i now grow Gladiator F1.
You might find all your parsnips are notlike that,there might be some better ones in the row.
Lets hope so ayway.

Hi Primrose
My parsnips are the same - almost round then with whiskery leggy bits sticking out of the bottom. I`ve only had one which is parsnip shaped.
I thought it was because i`d grown them in toilet roll tubes and this had stunted their growth, but I suppose it could be a watering problem.
They taste nice though so thats the main thing.
Theres always next year to have another go....
Seedling

ive allways thought mine were that shaped cos they were a tad to big when transplanted. i think its something we get when transplanting, but i know dirrect sowing doesnt work for me, and when the round bits are chopped and roasted they taste better than a shop bought parsnip shaped parsnip.

Hi Seedling,
I suggest that you damaged the tap-root when transplanting. It sounds like you were too late in planting out. You must get them in the ground before there is the slightest show of the tap-root.
I have some super Parsnips this year and I planted them out in their loo roll jacket and let them get on with it.
These were sown in one of the tunnels the second week of February and planted out about the first week in March. They do not mind the cold and they will germinate at a minimum temp of 1.7C. 35F. with a max germination Temp of 14C.
JB.

Thanks Johnboy
I`ll give that a go next year
Seedling

What a difference ! Having referred back to my first post and noted I was digging up miserable parsnips, I am now harvesting enormous ones. So, perhaps all the rain we've had in the past couple of months and the mild weather has really brought them on. I feel an attack of curried parsnip and apple soup coming on the help reduce the parsnip mountain!

Good for you primrose, it comes to those who wait.
That soup sounds rather scrummy.

We had the worst year for parsnips,not many germanated, and those that did grow were ruined with canker, we always got a bit of canker but this year they wre a waste of space and time, I have bagged them up for dumping, didn't want to put them in the compost in case of spreading the disease.
Bren

Bren, what a disappointment. I guess we veggie growers should get used to it but it's always such a letdown when we lavish care and time on them and get nothing in return. But there's always next year !