Articles from our members
Posted by Martin Hibbert on 21.3.16
I always wonder why it’s such a funny thing growing stuff. One year everything goes well and I think I’ve cracked it as everything has germinated. The whole row looks great and I know I will have a good crop and so now that will be the same for years to come. The following year I think I have done exactly the same thing but only half the seeds germinate. This last year has been disastrous with one particular vegetable being particularly troublesome, and I’m guessing that some of you will have already sussed out which one I am talking about. Of course it is the parsnip.
Now Betty and I love parsnips, and for us they form an essential part of a roast dinner. I also love to make parsnip wine, so you can see that growing them is important to me. I won’t say very important as that would make it seem as if I was dependent on homemade wine, but I do enjoy a tipple. Last year was not a good year as although we grew several parsnips there were not enough to see us through the winter and certainly not enough to make wine as well. So I thought I would save some of the peelings and use those for the wine making, which seemed like a good idea but it wasn’t, as the eventual finished wine tasted a bit like the River Medway. I decided to drink it all as this would remind me not to do this again but to try harder and this year would be our best year.
Unfortunately parsnips have a bad reputation for germination and also the germination period is fairly long. So the time to look at the row to see if little seedlings are coming up is about four weeks after sowing. This year I waited in anticipation for the suggested period of about four weeks to see if I had been successful. Now I am an optimist so week one I had to look, Nothing! As expected. Week two Nothing! Although something green was showing. Week three and Hurrah! Shoots with little leaves were beginning to come through, but were these parsnips or weeds. There were possibly weeds there which I could pull out, but also there were small leaves that could have been parsnips. Should I pull the weeds out and disturb any growing parsnip or leave them and pull out later. I left them and left them until it got to six weeks and I realised that I was growing some exceptionally good weeds.
So out came all the weeds and I started again. This time I decided to try something that one of the other plot holders had suggested which involves using a dibber. Make a conical shaped hole and fill this with sieved earth or seed compost and then sow the seed into this. I was very hopeful that this would work. Now this does have an advantage as you know where to look for any sign of the little blighters coming up, but I soon found out this was possibly a disadvantage as it also shows where they are not coming up. We did get about five parsnips in the end, but we have not given up and will be hoping for a bumper crop this year. If you have any tips on growing parsnips perhaps you could share them with our readers and if we find a successful method we will let you all know.
I always wonder why it’s such a funny thing growing stuff. One year everything goes well and I think I’ve cracked it as everything has germinated. The whole row looks great and I know I will have a good crop and so now that will be the same for years to come. The following year I think I have done exactly the same thing but only half the seeds germinate. This last year has been disastrous with one particular vegetable being particularly troublesome, and I’m guessing that some of you will have already sussed out which one I am talking about. Of course it is the parsnip.
Now Betty and I love parsnips, and for us they form an essential part of a roast dinner. I also love to make parsnip wine, so you can see that growing them is important to me. I won’t say very important as that would make it seem as if I was dependent on homemade wine, but I do enjoy a tipple. Last year was not a good year as although we grew several parsnips there were not enough to see us through the winter and certainly not enough to make wine as well. So I thought I would save some of the peelings and use those for the wine making, which seemed like a good idea but it wasn’t, as the eventual finished wine tasted a bit like the River Medway. I decided to drink it all as this would remind me not to do this again but to try harder and this year would be our best year.
Unfortunately parsnips have a bad reputation for germination and also the germination period is fairly long. So the time to look at the row to see if little seedlings are coming up is about four weeks after sowing. This year I waited in anticipation for the suggested period of about four weeks to see if I had been successful. Now I am an optimist so week one I had to look, Nothing! As expected. Week two Nothing! Although something green was showing. Week three and Hurrah! Shoots with little leaves were beginning to come through, but were these parsnips or weeds. There were possibly weeds there which I could pull out, but also there were small leaves that could have been parsnips. Should I pull the weeds out and disturb any growing parsnip or leave them and pull out later. I left them and left them until it got to six weeks and I realised that I was growing some exceptionally good weeds.
So out came all the weeds and I started again. This time I decided to try something that one of the other plot holders had suggested which involves using a dibber. Make a conical shaped hole and fill this with sieved earth or seed compost and then sow the seed into this. I was very hopeful that this would work. Now this does have an advantage as you know where to look for any sign of the little blighters coming up, but I soon found out this was possibly a disadvantage as it also shows where they are not coming up. We did get about five parsnips in the end, but we have not given up and will be hoping for a bumper crop this year. If you have any tips on growing parsnips perhaps you could share them with our readers and if we find a successful method we will let you all know.