Cool-Season Vegetables: How to Grow Parsnips
This unfairly maligned root vegetable is the ideal choice for a winter garden, sweetening with the frost and having a long storage life
If you’re looking for something that can handle the cold, the parsnip is your vegetable of choice. Unfortunately, it has a reputation similar to the turnip as something not worth eating. What many people don’t realize is that parsnips have a sweet and creamy taste and are perfect on their own, whether boiled, roasted, mashed, sautéed or baked. They're also good mixed with potatoes.
Most of all, these vegetables are hardy. They taste much sweeter after the first frost and can be stored in a cool, damp place for several months. They can even be left in the ground until you're ready to cook them in a savory fall or winter dish.
More: How to grow cool-season crops
Most of all, these vegetables are hardy. They taste much sweeter after the first frost and can be stored in a cool, damp place for several months. They can even be left in the ground until you're ready to cook them in a savory fall or winter dish.
More: How to grow cool-season crops
Days to maturity: 90 to 130
Light requirement: Full sun or partial shade
Water requirement: Regular
Favorites: Albion, Half-Long Guernsey, Hollow Crown, Javelin, Lancer
Planting and care: Like their carrot relatives, parsnips need a fine soil that's free of lumps or stone. Break up the soil at least 1 1/2 feet deep and till in sand and fine compost a few weeks before planting.
The seeds themselves are very small and fine; pellated seeds are a good choice, as they won’t blow away quite as easily. Sow seeds 1/2 inch deep and 1 inch apart; thin seedlings to 3 inches apart. Keep the soil consistently moist and the area around the plants weed free. Mulching will help preserve moisture and keep weeds down. Potential pests include armyworms, cabbage root maggots, flea beetles, leafhoppers and nematodes.
Harvest: Dig up roots using a spade or a spading fork, then store them in a cool, damp place. If you want to leave them in the ground through a cold winter, cover them with a foot of hay or straw to keep the ground from freezing. Mark with tall stakes so you can find them when the snow falls. In the coldest climates, it’s better to harvest the roots before the ground freezes and store them.