Sowing Parsnip Seeds

These photos were taken on 2 April 2009 when we sowed our parsnip seeds. It is important to choose a still day when sowing these s seeds. The seeds are wind distributed so very light and easily blown away.

Parsnip seed does not keep and so you must buy new seed each year to have any chance of good germination.

Parsnips are in the ground for a long time - we are still harvesting parsnips sown last year, so this should be kept in mind when choosing a location for sowing. We leave our parsnips in the ground until we are ready to eat them. The flavour of the roots improve after they have been subjected to a frost as the frost turns the starch into sugars.

Most advice is to plant very early but there is no point in doing this if the ground is cold and wet as the seed will rot and so not germinate in these conditions.

Parsnip seeds are notoriously slow to germinate and some people prefer to pre-germinate them on damp kitchen paper but touch wood we have generally had reasonable success using the method explained below.