Medwyn Williams on the best show parsnips
The oldies are still the goodies, but it really is horses for courses
Iwas looking through my seed catalogue the other day and found I now stock eight different cultivars of parsnips, all of them F1 hybrids. It got me thinking, why am I stocking so many? There must be one variety that’s superior to all others? However, when I looked closer, I began to see that all of them are being ordered regularly by different growers in different parts of the country.
The first parsnip to be registered as an F1 hybrid was ‘Gladiator’, bred by Dr Peter Dawson and introduced in 1982. This variety is still doing well on the show benches at the highest level. This variety was quickly followed a couple of years later by ‘Javelin’ F1, which seemed to carry its weight evenly down its body and is a big favourite commercially. The most modern ones from the same stable as ‘Gladiator’ are ‘Sabre’ and ‘Viking’, both much whiter than ‘Gladiator’, but yet to establish themselves as top varieties.
With so many growers having success at the highest level all over the country, it could well have something to do with the climate where they’re grown. I’ve had exhibitors ordering a new release from me to try, only to find that they can’t do anything with it and revert to their old regular cultivar.
We all have our favourites: the late Jack Arrowsmith from mid-Wales won many times with ‘Gladiator’, while Ian Stocks from Scotland has won with ‘Victor’ and Jim Dunnett from the North East regularly with his favourite ‘Countess’. I myself won the Welsh Championship with ‘Victor’ at Wrexham in 2014.
Next week I shall be sowing my parsnips, primarily and hopefully, for Malvern Autumn Show on the last weekend in September. These will be in my usual grey pipes filled with concreting sand with three stations cored out and filled with a compost mix. The mix I use is: one bag F2S,
10 litre fine grade Vermiculite,
10 litre sieved soil, 200g (7oz) finely sieved bone meal and 300g (10oz) sieved calcified seaweed.
■ Why not follow me on Twitter throughout the season as I grow vegetables for my show displays – @medwynsofangles.