Growing Parsnip

The parsnip is adapted to culture over a wide portion of North America. It must have warm soil and weather at planting time, but does not thrive in midsummer in the South.

Parsnips are available as a fresh vegetable throughout the winter, actually improving as the winter progresses and especially if a frost gets to the roots. They can be baked, boiled or fried and the leaves can also be eaten as a green vegetable, getting double value from the crop.

In many parts of the South parsnips are grown and used during early summer. They should not reach maturity during midsummer, however. Furthermore, it is difficult to obtain good germination in the summer, which limits their culture during the autumn.

The problem with growing parsnips is that they have a very long growing season. They are one of the first crops to be sown and probably the last crop to be harvested. They occupy the land for the year, thus taking up land which could be used for growing a series of crops

Any deep, fertile soil will grow parsnips, but light, friable soil, with no tendency to bake, is best. Stony or lumpy soils are objectionable; they may cause rough, prongy roots. Almost all well drained soils will produce a good crop. Level the bed off to give a fine tilth a day or two before sowing, which will normally be as soon as conditions allow in the late winter or early spring.

Parsnips dislike very acid soil and do best in one which is slightly acid, neutral or slightly alkaline, test your soil with a soil test kit several weeks before preparing the seed bed and if necessary, add lime to achieve a pH of 6.5. The site you choose for parsnips is not as important as the soil, they prefer an open sunny site, but they will also grow quite happily in a lightly shaded plot.

Parsnip seed must be fresh - not more than a year old - and it is well to sow rather thickly and thin to about 3 inches apart. Parsnips germinate slowly, but it is possible to hasten germination by covering the seed with leafmold, sand, a mixture of sifted coal ashes and soil, peat, or some similar material that will not bake. Rolling a light soil over the row or trampling it firmly after seeding usually hastens and improves germination.

Parsnips may be dug and stored in a cellar or pit or left in the ground until used. Roots placed in cold storage gain in quality faster than those left in the ground, and freezing in the ground in winter improves the quality.

The wild parsnip is virtually inedible; but cultivation has produced a sweet, aromatic root that looks much like a carrot, only it is a tan colour with white flesh. The English name comes through the French, pastinaca, with the "nip", indicating that it was like a turnip.

In medieval Europe, sugar was rare and honey expensive. Moreover, the starchy potato had not yet arrived; so the only alternative was with the sweet, starchy parsnip, which became doubly useful. As the sugar supply increased and the potato made its appearance in the middle of the 18th century, the popularity of the parsnip began to wane.

There is no basis for the belief that parsnips that remain in the ground over winter and start growth in the spring are poisonous. All reported cases of poisoning from eating so-called wild parsnips have been traced to water hemlock (Cicuta), which belongs to the same family and resembles the parsnip somewhat.

Be very careful in gathering wild plants that look like the parsnip!