What are my parsnips trying to tell me?

I've got self seeded parsnip by the thousand!

Trouble is they're coming up, not in the prepared garden bed, nor the area where the parsnip went to seed over the last two years, but the path in between which is compacted and unimproved meadow grass!

What does that mean?

Well I know they're not the same family, but I am reminded of Mustard Island in Shanleya's Quest where the guardian of the island is "out there with a shovel, working feverishly to turn over the soil"

I wonder if you parsnip babies are telling you the soil is too compacted there and they want to loosen it up for you?

Fascinating!  Assuming this is seed from last autumn .. could it be significantly different in terms of moisture levels or retained warmth?

Parsnip likes to grow in grass! They are excellent for turning lawns into gardens.

Could it be your garden soils are too fungal? Do you till them?

I notice they like to grow in paths. In this part of the world, those unaware of their virtues call them “poison parsnip” because of the blisters produced by getting the sap of the flowering stalks onto one’s skin on a sunny day. It makes me wonder if they are protectors of excessively compact earth 1. by loosening it through their roots: 2. by tillage of voles, humans, etc. looking to eat them; and 3. by deterring animals from going too often through a single path.

In the end I have no idea what they’re telling you, though!

I do not know if they're trying to tell you something but mine did that last year. I left them to grow, they're big now and might flower. I like it because as mentioned above they are great soilbuilders. When left going to seed , the root dies back and this is great for worms and it leaves a plug to turn into airy soil. They're starting to behave kind of wild my grex. I haven't tried last year, but this year they're all over the place, i want to try and use them as mulch. Just wack em with a hoe or hand scythe. The ones making it ,i take it, have a stronger genetic pattern, i'll let them seed and keep building this wild variety of parsnip.

Ac Baker wrote:Fascinating!  Assuming this is seed from last autumn .. could it be significantly different in terms of moisture levels or retained warmth?

To be honest I'm thinking these are probably seeds from a couple of years ago. I did get some seed last year, but the root harvest was quite poor the previous year:

parsnip flowers 2025

I seem to remember getting a great harvest of seed in 2024 though....

parsnip flowers 2024

However the different microclimate may be a factor - compaction will make the surface of the soil damper and we've had a cool damp spring so far. The grass coverage may make the soil surface warmer as it will keep the cooling winds away. Shade from the sun not a factor this year I feel, as we've seen so little of it!

M Ljin wrote:Parsnip likes to grow in grass! They are excellent for turning lawns into gardens.

I wonder if they just like the company - root exudates?

Could it be your garden soils are too fungal? Do you till them?

That adjacent bed was root crops last year and legumes the previous year. I thought I'd dug it fairly thoroughly (but still found parsnips from my crop last year sprouting this spring), but not turned over or mechanically tilled, just loosened with a fork. My microscope shows little fungal growth as yet. I don't think there is much in the path either. Although never cultivated as such, it is really compacted and acidic.

Hugo Morvan wrote:The ones making it ,i take it, have a stronger genetic pattern, i'll let them seed and keep building this wild variety of parsnip.

I'd be really interested in how your parsnip turn out! I'm not going to be removing these, although am contemplating trying to transplant some of them into my roots bed. I have heard that you can get problems with inbreeding with parsnip - but I think that is when you select too few roots to make your population. If you've got good mix of genes to start with, and let lots go to flower, then it shouldn't be a problem I think.

They are certainly telling me it's time to sow my parsnip seeds!

 I have heard that you can get problems with inbreeding with parsnip - but I think that is when you select too few roots to make your population. If you've got good mix of genes to start with, and let lots go to flower, then it shouldn't be a problem I think.

I have had them for at least 5 years and have added new varieties at every turn, every seed exchange or private exchange i've added genetics. I mean i didn't start out like some people do buying 10 differing varieties and cross that, but i'm slowly landracing toward something which is very prolific. I've heard that's what i'm selectingfor unknowingly at first , because if you want like the biggest parsnips, you have to dig them all up select the biggest/sweetest or roundest or longest or whatever one desires and replant the selected ones to let them go to seed. But since i just let them be i'm selecting the best seeders/most agressive growers. Not many crops i know withstand grass and shade it out. So i'm excited about the prospect of using it as a soilbuilding cover crop or mulchprovider like comfrey, but comfrey stays for years on end, i've nort seen one die.
I'll send a picture later if i remember.

Hugo Morvan wrote:since i just let them be i'm selecting the best seeders/most agressive growers. Not many crops i know withstand grass and shade it out. So i'm excited about the prospect of using it as a soilbuilding cover crop or mulchprovider like comfrey,

Yes that would be exciting! - I'll learn in time whether they do the same for me. They are pretty similar, if not quite so vigorous, as the Angelica which I'm starting to use for that purpose - as a pioneer soil preparer.

Ha, classic. Mine do the same, the volunteers that pop up in the paths always seem happier than the ones I carefully sow in prepared beds. Makes you wonder if we're overthinking the whole soil prep thing sometimes.

Is that the same path you showed with water running over like a stream? I usually find seeds staying dormant for a few years in the soil if conditions are not appropriate for them to germinate. But if the volunteers do come up naturally, they are much earlier to emerge and survive freezing temperatures better than the pampered counterparts in designated garden.

The first picture are the spontaneous ones that popped up in grass, they're bigger than the  second ones are the deliberate ones.

Makes you wonder if we're overthinking the whole soil prep thing sometimes.

That got me thinking. I have put a plastic tarp down and the grass must have pretty much died back there. Now i saw a guy on the youtube with a microscope who said that is a bad habit, because it kills the soil life. Especially when it's dry over summer.
So i'll use these seeds to go and put it full of parsnip. It's a bit late, so i'm soaking them and will overseed like crazy.