self perpectuating parsnip bed

[fishhead]

Does anyone have a bed of parsnips that they just let grow and only harvest?

A friend of mine said that she has a bed of parsnips that self seeds and whenever she wants some she just digs the roots. The ones not dug produce seeds the following year and keep the bed producing.

That looks worth exploring. I'd like to have a bed of parsnips that I only had to fertilize in the spring and dig the rest of the season. I'll bet that if you ran a tiller through the bed each fall the stand would get pretty thick.

[K.B.]

This is my first year saving seed from parsnips. I'll be curious to see if any volunteers pop up next year from missed seed.

I do let carrots self-seed and it works well to keep a continual supply of seed on hand each year. The area they are in has poor, rocky soil and they still manage to volunteer. I'd bet parsnips will do the same.

[Paquebot]

They are a weed to me the past few years, albeit a somewhat welcome one. I've been leaving a few survive as long as they are not in the way of something else. I see that I missed a few this spring as already several are setting flowers. Seed is supposed to have a short life but I'm not so certain that some are coming up from 3 or 4 years ago.

Martin

[fishhead]

If it's possible with parsnips I wonder if it's possible with carrots? I would think the biggest problem would be to keep the grass from crowding them out or stunting them.

[Paquebot]

Main problem with carrots is that they will cross with any Queen Anne's lace within a mile. What one ends up with as a result is usually inedible.

Martin

[K.B.]

We've had good luck with our volunteer carrots, so far. No special measures for protecting the flowers.

[fireweed farm]

Wouldn't root pests become unbearable without crop rotation (or pesticides)?

[Paquebot]

In all my years of growing parsnips and carrots, I've never ever had any root pests. If they were going to show up in parsnips due to lack of rotation, they would have had their chance for probably 40 years or more. For as long as I've grown them, always in the same place so that they can be out of the way for fall tilling and easy access right after the spring thaw.

Martin

[DaynaJ]

I just bought a package on parsnip seed. Was hoping we'd have another mild winter & I'd have parsnips most of the winter available. I'm in MO, the Ozarks, zone 6? The ones that over winter, do I dig them up next spring or when do they go to seed & new ones are coming on--Thank you. Oh yeah, also, does the soil have to be loose real deep for them to grow good?

[fishhead]

I think if you let them start regrowing in the spring they go bad because they take energy from the root for growth and flowering.

[Paquebot]

Some oldtimers will claim that if one sees the start of new growth the quality goes down. It's not quite that extreme but they are right. Everything stored in the root goes into producing a monster flower stalk and quickly becomes just another simple inedible root.

Deep, loose, stone-free soil is a must for even the shorter varieties. They are about the deepest of all vegetables with a root capable of extending down to 18'.

Martin

[snowcap]

I hate peeling spindly parsnip roots. So I save the seeds and replant in a new bed each year. Spacing and thinning the seeds in the effort to grow the biggest roots. Other wise they wrap around each other.
I have found freezing the seeds makes them last. This years bed is planted from 2 years ago saved seeds.
I save seeds every year. Parsnips seem to be more popular to grow and the seeds are a easy and nice gift for people needing seeds.