Medwyn Williams has a good year with parsnips
So far so good for these vegetables – could these be the best yet?
Iwas a little later than usual sowing my parsnip seed this year. I normally like to get them sown from the middle to the end of February. Probably one of the best and most consistent parsnip growers I’ve ever known was the late Jack Arrowsmith from Boughrood in Brecon. Jack was unbeatable on his day, showing the variety ‘Gladiator’, and always sown around February 7.
Mine were sown on March 16 inside my glasshouse and in barrels of concreting sand, with four holes cored out of every barrel and filled with my regular parsnip mixture. I’ve five barrels of new ‘Warrior’ parsnips and the other six with the yet unnamed ‘TZ9045’, which pulled and washed so very well for me last year on my display at Malvern.
The germination this year was excellent and the young seedlings were probably the most even in growth I’ve had for a long time. I initially covered them over with fleece on top of some plastic hoops to prevent any drips from the roof spoiling germination. They’ve had no extra feed and the only work is just to support the strong, tall foliage to prevent them from leaning over and snapping off. As the parsnip develops in girth you’ll also notice that the outer leaves turn yellow and die back. I remove these once they die right back.
These parsnips are intended for Malvern Show, which is very late this year being on the last two days of September, so I don’t think being late sowing will make a difference. As I have 44 parsnips in total I’m hoping to have a set of five for the National Vegetable Society Championships, which are held this year at Harrogate from September 14-16. I won’t compromise myself though on my display at Malvern, so I shall pull three first to see how good they are before committing myself to pulling any more. l Follow me on Twitter – @medwynsofangles