Some Of The Secrets To Outstanding Carrots And Parsnips

I wanted to take a moment and share some thoughts with you about growing really high quality parsnips and carrots. Now not everyone is going to be able to mimic what I am doing here. Someone with a heavy clay soil is going to struggle to grow long root crops. That is one of the reasons I feel very fortunate to have this Michigan sand. I have learned over the years how to build its fertility quickly after taking the time to double dig and loosen the soil deeply.

Just before I get ready to seed I am going to use my broadfork that has 18” deep tines and loosen the soil. I’m doing this on bed space that was previously double dug down to 24”. I would never try to broadfork this deeply if the bed had not been previously double dug.

After my soil has been loosened I will spread my compost and whatever other amendments I feel I will need over the surface. Then I will take my hand and mix the amendments shallowly into the surface, if it is just a small planting. Now I will take my rake and make the surface smooth and flat. The rake is not digging down in moving lots of soil. Only shallowly making things more even. This is important because you want to keep whatever mineral amendments you spread where you placed them.

Then I add my pvc tine markers to my rake at the spacing I desire for seeding. The rake I am using has tines that are 1 1/2" apart.  For parsnips I will often space rows 6” apart. For carrots I commonly use 4.5”. When I put seed into these small trenches I will put quite a bit more than I need. I am always happy to come back and thin to the very strongest plants if the germination is good. If the germination is poor I may end up with enough plants. Seed is inexpensive. Especially the parsnip seed for me because I have so much from saving my own each season. What final spacing you choose in the rows will depend on soil fertility and the size roots you desire. You will have to play with it a bit to see what works best for you.

After I put my seed in the trenches I will take my fingers and lightly flick the sides of the trench and cover the seeds with a small amount of soil. After they are covered then I will take my hand and gently pat the whole soil surface and make sure it is flat again. This is important so that the seed has good contact with the soil for soaking up the necessary moisture. Having this surface flat is really important so you get very even water penetration over the whole area. If you have low and high spots the water will go to the low spots and the high spots will be dry.

I will water the surface with a gentle spray two to three times a day, depending on how hot it is outside. I want that surface to remain moist. When I water I also give it enough that the whole soil down to 18”-24” is going to remain moist. This is where that moisture meter you keep hearing me talk about it really important. This is something that each of you will have to learn on your specific soil. I am convinced that when these roots germinate they immediately send down their tap root as deep as it will quickly go. At this early stage it sets the quality for the rest of the process. If your tap root hits hard pan at 9”. You will have 9” carrots that will develop. We have had 24” carrots and parsnips that have gone as long as 41”. When your root crops can put on that kind of length your yields per square foot begin to explode.

Parsnips and carrots are notorious for being very slow to germinate. Often taking twenty some days to show themselves. Too many people give up and are not patient enough.

After the seeds have germinated I continue to water late morning and again in the evening. Remember I am in sand. If you have a heavy soil you may drown them with the amount of water I am applying. I keep such a moist atmosphere in my carrot patch that I have had leopard frogs take up residence. Until the crops are fully harvested I will keep up this watering unless it rains. People have said that carrots and parsnips this size are going to be tough and woody. They are not. In fact the chef that I grow for has used them several times at very important events during competitions because the quality is so high.