Parsnip recommendation?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Can anyone recommend a variety of parsnip that is easy to harvest? My parsnips grow down into my clayish soil, and grow tons of side roots. It takes so long to harvest each plant that I would never grow them except that my land-lady adores them... And even after all that work I can only harvest about 5" of root: The rest gets left in the ground.

Is there even such thing as varieties in parsnips? If yes, do you have any recommendations for short roots, or for roots without a ton of side shoots?

I wonder if there are cultural practices that could help? For example digging a furrow, then hilling up where the furrow used to be, and planting the parsnips on top of the hill?

[steev]

The variety I've used in difficult soil is Fullback, very blocky, nearly round. Halblange is another. In any event, you no doubt want to greatly augment the soil in the trench with organic matter. I highly recommend them mashed with spuds.

[mjc]

Joseph, how about one of the 'Half Long' varieties...they are shorter and rounder than many other varieties and are supposed to do well in heavier soils.

[Hristo]

As steev pointed in your case the short ones may do the job for you. Here I found one image of one such variety (in this case it is the Russain variety "Kruglii"~'Round'):
fotki.yandex.ru/users/sem-ot-anis/view/123588/?page=1

Edit: steev and mjc

[grunt]

Joseph:Try this with any variety of parsnip = drive an iron bar into the ground = anything up to two feet deep. Wobble it back and forth and sideways, so you make a wider hole in the clay. Fill the hole with a mix of sand and compost, or even straight compost. Plant your parsnip, and wait for harvest time. If you can, let the frost hit the top a couple of times before you harvest, it will sweeten the parsnip considerably. You should have no side roots to worry about, but I am pretty sure you are going tohave to dig for anything you pull out of the ground = those guys really know how to hold on.

[ottawagardener]

There are the turnip shaped varieties like Russian Kral - same, I'm guessing as Kruglii?

[ottawagardener]

Prairie Garden seeds is offering a slightly shorter variety called Short Thick:

www.prseeds.ca/catalogue/root.php?C=Root#parsnips

PARSNIPS (Pastinaca sativa) – SHORT THICK has roots about as long as Hollow Crown but they taper very rapidly so most of the root is in the first 6"-8". KRAL is called a round parsnip and it is true that their roots are shaped more like beets than parsnips. This is apparently an East European cultivar.

P.S. He has a nice selection of grains too.

[seedywen]

I grow a lot of Hollow Crown type parsnips in soil with a high clay content.

After the main garden is tilled in April/May, I rake the loose soil to make at least two 3' wide beds, which are about 50' long.

In each bed two trenches about 12'' deep or more are dug. My richest, most complete compost is placed in the bottom of each trench COF(Complete Organic Fertilizer) a la Steve Soloman's recipe is sprinkled on the compost. The trenches are back filled and parsnips sown in a wide band, lightly covered with soil, pressed in. Usually one fifty foot row of parsnips is enough so usually carrots are grown in the second bed.

Carrot rust fly is epidemic here so both crops need full covering with a floating row cover until harvest.

Hairy roots in both parsnips/carrots seem related in my experience to two factors:

Inadequately composted or overly rich compost.

Over-maturity.

Parsnips are usually a 120 or higher number of days to maturity.
I count the number of days, back from the expected of hard frost. Here that's usually by mid November. If parsnips are planted too early in the spring, they often reach full maturity by September or October and begin to send out many tiny feeder roots as if they were going into their second seed bearing year.

When I purchased this farm twenty years ago, the first investment in the garden area was two dump truck loads of sand. Otherwise doubt would have had much success growing parsnips or carrots at all.

[robertb]

What do you dig them out with? I use a fork for almost everything, but it breaks long roots. So if it's a parsnip, a dock, anything that goes really deep, I get the spade out. I have some Crinum powellii - they were hit hard in the very wet summers a couple of years ago, but seem to be recovering - and when I tried to lift them, I found they went down over a spit, and I had to dig a trench under them to avoid chewing the bulbs to bits.

[littleminnie]

I find they seem to be different sizes and shapes by harvest time.
If anyone wants harris model seeds I have thousands.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

спасибо. Thanks for the recommendations. I ended up ordering Russian round parsnips from a Canadian company. Kral I believe was the variety name.

I'm thinking that if I were to let my field go fallow one year, that I would plant the whole thing to parsnips... The roots would sure go down vigorously, and inject all sorts of organic material deep into the sub soil. When I plant radishes, they end up being skyscrapers instead of roots. You know how startling it is to see 6" of radish poking out of the ground?

I have been planting parsnips in November, a day or so before snow cover arrives. I don't know how to calculate growing season on that, but somewhere around 270 days... No wonder they have so many side shoots when I pick them. I think this year I was digging with a shovel because I forgot my fork that day.

Digging trenches and stabbing with iron bars? Sounds like a lot of labor. I might be willing for a high value crop like mandrakes, but parsnips are just a favor to my land-lady, and I do plenty of other favors that are lots easier. But heck, if I find the right seed and the right techniques I might actually grow them for profit.

Good mulch is precious around here. Not easily obtained without having huge liabilities like wood chips, or sewer sludge, or cow manure. Though in one of my fields this year I planted an intentional cover crop for the first time: Winter peas. As of December 15th they have germinated. Wouldn't it be clever if they out-compete and smother the morning glory?

[ianpearson]

I'd say the forking is always down to cultural practice. Keep it simple - give the plant root consistent soil to run through, and it will maintain a single taproot. If it hits an inconsistency (e.g. lumps of fresh compost, voids caused by recent cultivation, changes in soil density) it may fork. I grow mine on heavy clay, and get perfect results just by hoeing off the previous crop, raking to form a surface tilth, then direct-sowing (transplanting will guarantee root forking).

To aid harvest, water very heavily the day before harvest (if the soil is dry).

[michaeljohnson]

It is generally accepted over here in the UK that the variety called (Gladiator) is the best all rounder, and remains disease free most of the time with big nice tasting parsnips.

[ottawagardener]

Ian: I think this idea of soil consistency is interesting. I wonder if there is a difference in dimension of roots anyhow without forking in different soils. As I have both clay and sand on my property, I might give it a try. I would guess that parsnips grown on sandy soil would be longer.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

This is what the Kral Russian Parsnips looked like. They didn't germinate very well, and didn't grow very vigorously, but I am delighted with the turnip-rooted shape. It's the first time I've been able to dig parsnips without leaving 3/4 of the root in the ground. I stuck the best growing roots, and most turnip shaped into a seed bed, hoping to grow seed next summer. Sorry the following photo is of the seconds.