How to grow parsnips

Did you know parsnips are one of the longest taking vegetables to grow! You can plant them in Spring and the won’t be ready till Autumn/Winter. One tip is to leave them in the ground until after the first frost this gives them extra flavour. In this article, we will be explaining how to grow parsnips.

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.

Purchase Parsnip Seeds

Are you wanting to try your hand at growing parsnips? Here you can purchase parsnip seeds directly from Amazon:-

When to Sow, Plant and Harvest Parsnips

Here is our guide to when to sow, plant and harvest parsnips in the UK:-

Remember these timings are always based on the area you live and the weather you are having.

How to Sow Parsnips

When sowing parsnips some packets will say to sow in February, if I was you I would not listen to this wait until at least end of March/April or even May as this can provide better germination times. The best way to sow parsnip seeds is straight into the ground do not sow them in seed trays.

Prepare the ground ready by getting rid of all the weeds and stones in the ground. Sow the seeds thinly in rows in the ground.

Parsnips like warm soil to germinate so you might want to put a cloche over the top of the ground to keep it warm. This way it will speed up germination. Don’t be worried if you don’t see the shoots straight away as it can take a while for them to germinate.

How to transplant Parsnips

As parsnips are growing where they should and not in seed trays you won’t need to transplant your parsnip plants. The only thing you will need to do is thin the plants out so that there is around 20cm between each plant. Get rid of all the small shoots and leave the best ones growing.

How to harvest Parsnips

At the top of the page we mentioned that you should leave your parsnip roots in the ground until the first frost this will add extra flavour to the roots.

The plants will start to die back at the end of summer. This does not mean they need pulling they can be left in the ground until you actually need them.

When lifting them gently ease them up with a fork being careful not snap the roots off.

How to look after Parsnips

The best way to look after parsnips is to keep them weed free as they don’t like to compete with the weeds for water or nutrients.

Keep the parsnips watered this will stop the roots from splitting.

Parsnip Pests and Diseases

Parsnips can suffer problems like any other fruit and vegetable they can suffer from:-

Canker:- This is when the parsnip will form a red or brown canker on the top of the root. To prevent this make sure you sow them thinly apart and you can also purchase canker resistant varieties.

We hope you have found this page useful on how to grow parsnips. You can find more information on parsnips below.

More information on Parsnips

Do you need to know how to freeze parsnips from the amount that you have grown? You can find out here.