Growing Parsnips

Parsnips are fantastic to grow in the garden. You can plant them and basically leave them until you are ready to eat them. You don’t even need to harvest them all at once you can just harvest them as and when you actually need them just leave them in the ground until you are actually ready. Here we will be sharing hints and tips on growing parsnips for the best harvests and great produce. You can sow parsnips in spring and be eating the lovely roasted parsnips come autumn with your Sunday dinner.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

When to sow and harvest parsnips.

Here you can find out when the best time of the year is to sow and harvest.

** Note this are UK timings – everything is obviously based on the weather**

Parsnip Varieties

When choosing parsnip varieties to grow it is important that you choose ones that are resistant to Canker. The varieties that we recommend growing are:-

• Ruby
• Marian
• Angela

Choosing the best spot for growing parsnips

When choosing the best spot for growing parsnips you need to find a sunny spot for them to grow. They like soil that has previously been improved with well rotted manure. If you are growing them for shows you will want to choose perfect soil but we are looking at growing parsnips for home use. Before sowing your parsnip seeds make sure that you have raked over the soil, removed any stones and added general fertilizer the week before for best outcomes.

Sowing and planting Parsnips

When you sow parsnips seeds you have to be patiant as they can take a long time to germinate. When choosing the variety of parsnip choose a resistant variety of parsnip so that you don’t get canker. Parsnip seeds do not store well at all so you need to get a fresh batch every year. Don’t save the previous years seeds.

Parsnip seeds can be sown from late winter but it is always best waiting till the weather warms up and the soil is warmer. This will help with germination from the plants.

To sow parsnip seeds make a row with the edge of a dibber making it around 1cm deep. If the soil is dry give it a sprinkle of water to wet it slightly. Sow around 4 seeds every 20cms in the prepared row. Then cover the seeds with a fine layer of soil. The seeds are not the easiest to handle so it is probably better an adult does this.

Looking after Parsnip Plants

When your parsnip seeds start to grow you now need to decide which ones are growing the best out of the four seeds. Pull three out and leave the strongest one to carry on growing.

To get the best parsnips keep them weed free they do not like competeing against the weeds for the nutrients in the soil.

Parsnips do not need watering often or very little. Only water them when they start to wilt. You can just leave them to the rain to water. Which in the UK you will be fine for rain.

Harvesting Parsnips

When harvesting parsnips they are best pulled after the first frost as this turns the starch into sugars making them taste a lot better. However you can pull them from summer as baby vegetables. You can pull parsnips out of the ground as and when you actually need them

Parsnip Pests and Diseases

As with any fruit or vegetable you get pests and diseases that affect produce. Here you can see what affects parsnips.

Carrot Fly:- these can affect parsnips as well as carrots. Once the plants get attacked there is no stopping them. You need to be careful you don’t clump plants together too much or damage the plants when thinning them out as this will attract them. You can also build a barrier around the plants 2ft high using horticultural fleece.

Canker:- This can cause rot at the top of the parsnip. It will usually look brown/orange or purple. This can be caused through drought. The way to prevent this is to use a variety that is resistant to it.

Purchase Parsnip Seeds

You can purchase parsnip seeds from our Amazon link below.

You can find out more information on growing fruit and vegetables here