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Parsnip problems!

jennyr265jennyr265 Posts: 20
in Fruit & veg

image

 

hello, hopefully some one can help me with my parsnip problem please. I have been growing parsnips or trying to, for about 6 years now. Sometimes from seed and sometimes from plug plants bought at the local nursery. for the last three years I have grown them in raised beds. Each year they come out as in the attached photo. This time we grew them in at least 2 feet of soil. All suggestions as to what I am doing wrong gratefully received. TIA .

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  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    Too many nutrients would be my guess. 'Forking' in carrots and parsnips is usually caused by this. They always say don't plant them in freshly manured soil for example. I think you need it so the tap root is always going down to look for the nutrients to get nice long straight parsnips. The trouble with mine is they go down at least two feet and I have dig trenches to get the flipping things out in one piece. image

  • Lupin 1Lupin 1 Posts: 8,916

    I'd say pebbles or stony soil. 

  • WintersongWintersong Posts: 2,436

    @RB Cleve West won Chelsea couple years back with flowering parsnips in his borders, it was highly referencedimage

    PS hope I spelt the chap's name rightimage

  • Mark 499Mark 499 Posts: 380

    Jenny did you sow the seed direct into the soil? I have seen parsnips like this when people have sown them in trays & then transplanted them later.

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,136

    There is apparently a nematode that attacks parsnip roots and causes deformities but I know nothing about them.


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    I would have said too much feed in the soil as well, just going by the hairy rooty bits.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • davidedavide Posts: 12

    Yes like would say soil is to rich

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Could be any of the above, with too rich a soil being high on my list of suspects.  Parsnips definitely need to be sown in-situ and will deform like those in the photo if transplanted from seed trays etc., as Mark says.  I would never buy root crops in plug form for that reason.

    When I grow them in raised beds, it's in a 50/50 mixture of sharp sand and multi-purpose compost with fish, blood and bone fertiliser tickled into the surface a few weeks after they have started growing strongly.  That method has never failed me yet (perfect for carrots, too.) image

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • jennyr265jennyr265 Posts: 20
    Ok many thanks everyone. Yes these were transplanted plug plants and not grown from seed as I had a lot of problems with the seeds not germinating in the past. We sieved the soil as I thought stones etc may be causing a problem but we did enrich the soil at the same time which was obviously a mistake!! So I shall grow from seed in poorer soil this year- fingers crossed! Thank you.
  • No expertNo expert Posts: 415

    Buy fresh parsnip seed each year. They have a very poor germination rate if kept over from last year.

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