Root vegetables
Parsnip
Pastinaca sativa
Timings for your region
Suggested: Moderate · Explained in the glossary
Sow outdoorsmid March – mid May
Harvestearly October – late February
Practical tip
Always use fresh seed; old seed barely germinates. Leave it in the ground over winter — after the first frost it tastes far sweeter.
Origin & history
The parsnip is one of the few vegetables whose wild form is native here — wild parsnip grows on roadsides and dry grassland. Until the potato spread in the 18th century it was one of the most important filling winter vegetables in Central and Northern Europe; after that it disappeared almost entirely from German gardens and only came back in recent decades by way of British and Scandinavian cooking. It is a close relative of carrot, celeriac and parsley, which matters for rotation.
Varieties
Half-long varieties such as “Halblange Weiße” or “White Gem” cope with shallow and heavy soil, while long types like “Tender and True” need at least 40 cm of loose, stone-free ground. Newer F1 varieties such as “Gladiator” or “Palace” are explicitly sold as canker-tolerant — in a wet autumn that is a noticeable difference. Since a parsnip packet has to be bought new every year anyway, choosing a tolerant variety costs you nothing.
Care
Thin to 12 cm as soon as you can make out the row reliably, and keep it strictly weed-free for the first eight weeks — the seedlings are tiny and otherwise get swamped. A few radishes sown in the same drill mark the row while the parsnip is still absent and are long since harvested before they get in the way. Water deeply during long dry spells in midsummer; swinging between dry and wet splits the shoulder. The sap from foliage and stems can react on skin in combination with sunlight — wear long sleeves when weeding and harvesting on hot days.
What can go wrong
The typical trouble is brown-black rotting patches on the crown (parsnip canker), encouraged by wet autumns, fresh manuring and hoeing damage — draw a little soil over the shoulders, hoe carefully and pick a tolerant variety. Carrot fly attacks parsnips just as it does carrots; insect netting from sowing onwards and a gap of at least four years from carrot, celeriac and parsley in the same bed are the answer. Forked roots come from stones, from a compacted layer in the subsoil or from fresh manure — a deeply loosened but not freshly manured bed fixes that for good.
Harvest, storage & kitchen
Lift from October onwards — dig deep and wide with a fork, as the root is long and snaps easily at the crown. A layer of leaves over the bed keeps the ground open so you can keep digging in frost; if you need the space, parsnips keep in damp sand in a cool cellar. They contain a lot of sugar and brown faster in the oven than carrots, so roast them at a moderate heat. Clear the bed by March at the latest: after that the plant runs up and the root goes woody from the core outwards.
All timings are guide values for the given climate, not a guarantee. Weather, aspect and variety all have a say.