what is it with Parsnips?

[red]

I raised some in toilet rolls in propagator just fine. blummin jackdaws pulled them up for the cardboard for their nests - second lot went in deeper and seem ok. but I also planted them with radish in drills and they seem ok too. didn't do any soaking.

[madasafish]

I stopped growing parsnips about 10 years ago.. but seeds still germinate many years after being sowed:-)

[pskipper]

According to one of the blokes on the allotment it's that we are sowing them when the seed companies tell us to rather than when nature does it. He broadcasts his parsnip seeds around august/september time, thins them out a couple of months later and gets consistantly good crops! (I'm quite excited as it turns out I have self seeded parsnips from when the previous owners ones flowered :)

[chadspad]

I have got a serious crop growing this year apart from one row, the row I didnt soak first. I only got 1 parsnip out of 7 packets last year and the only thing I did differently was to soak them. Will definitely be doing that in the future! Unfortunately tho, I didnt sow them quite as thinly as I thought I had and have huge clumps growing together. Having had such a bad crop last year I am loathe to throw any away and have been transplanting them. The ones I did that were still tiny didnt survive but now theyre fairly big they dont seem to mind being moved so much.