Hi,
Does anyone have any details of how to sow parnips using a board to cover them. All the details I can find are very sketchy and I was just wondering how wide/thick should the board be. Presumably you take it off at first signs of germination. I have until now used kitchen towels to germinate them on but found the seed very erratic and prone to sticking to the paper and a pain to transfer out into the soil.

WOuld welcome any thoughts on this one.

Hilary

No ideas on the board, but some ideas on the chitting on kitchen roll.
For several years now I've chitted my parsnip seed on damp kitchen paper, and as soon as they have shoots about 2-3 mm long I transfer them to toilet roll tubes filled with compost, just lightly covering them with more compost or vermiculite. At that sort of size the chitted seeds show very little tendency to stick to the paper. They should show some green growth within a few days. Once large enough, transplant the seedlings in the tubes to the plot. This way they are very easily handled, the seedlings do not suffer any root disturbance and the tubes will rot in the soil.

Thanks Fred - if I cannot find more info on the boards I will go back to the chitting on kitchen paper but use the rolls as you suggest. I think the idea of the boards is that they keep the seed cool and damp and allow for a more uniform germination.
hilary

I decided a long time ago that as so many people have success by chitting Parnsnips it must mean they prefer to germinate warmer than is old custom. What I do is prepare the patch where I am going to grow them then cover it with a cloche (I use a piece of corrugated roofing plastic wedged between posts to make it curve up) and let it warm the soil for at least a week. I take out the drills and fill them with potting compost and sow fairly thinly, cover with potting compost or sand/leafmould mixture, water, distribute organic slug pellets and put the cloche back. I do this quite late, last weekend in fact, and I use an F1 variety. I get good success which I think is a combination of the cloche protection and the ability it gives me to protect against slugs.

I always sow them like FredfromOssett (love that name!) by pre-germinating them on damp kitchen roll in the house. I then plant them into tall roottrainers and keep them in there until they are about two inches tall before slowly hardening them off and planting them out. works every time.

I'm not sure that I really understand parsnips. The best crop I've ever had were sown direct into cold, quite heavy soil in February. Still try this every year, but also do the kitchen paper, loo roll thing as well because at least then I'll get something

Some four weeks ago I sowed parsnip seeds in in seed compost in loo roll cores in open ground - and every one of them is now poking through! They're Alan Titchmarsh branded parsnips, bought at a local National Trust garden shop.
Lucky FredfromOssett! They sell Ossett Brewery beers at my local pub in Surrey - a great pint!

I always aim to sow parsnips before February is out, direct where they are to grow. They are slow to germinate, taking around three to four weeks to emerge, but from this early sowing they germinate evenly, whereas later sowings can be erratic, or not at all. My particular thoughts on this are that parsnip seeds have a chilling response in the initial stages of germination, which later sowings do not necessarily experience (although with the weather so deteriorated this spring, they might). However, this does not really square with the results other folks get pre-germinating their seeds. To me, though, this seems like a lot of faffing about when parsnips are so easy to sow direct, and the seedlings large enough to be easily thin-out-able.

Dear JohnN
Pleased to see that proper beer has reached Surrey. I hope you can get the draught as well as the bottled!

I usually wait until May to sow my Parsnips and they do fine. Am early this year having sown in the last 2 days. A matter of convenience as May will be hectic

When I was on the Charles Dowding course a few weeks back, he said that he'd sown some parsnips one November for a photo shoot for a newspaper. He said he forgot all about them, till they germinated the following spring!

Having said that, I have successfully sown mine in the past in May too, but this year have sown them in the last 3 weeks or so and they've germinated fine from a direct sowing.

The end of April / beginning of May is when I sow parsnips too. I used to sow earlier, but germination was very unpredictable.
Later sowings have been so successful that I'm not growing parsnips this year - I have only just finished using last year's parsnips out of the freezer, and have just re-stocked the freezer with enough to last me, hopefully, well into 2013!

Not that I'm showing off or anything, but this is one of the parsnips I lifted a couple of weeks ago :

Thanks everyone - looks like a more relaxed attitude towards parnsips is required! I am trying direct sowing and the pre chitting method with loo rolls and see which ones come up best. I suspect the weather determines the results more than anything I will do!

Hilary

Dear Hilary, when sowing direct, you could try station sowing. Instead of sowing thinly all along the drill, sow four or five seeds at what ever distance you want your parsnips to end up at. I normally sow mine at nine inch spacings. When they germinate, just thin as normal.