Last edited on November 29, 2025. View history
Parsnip
How to sow parsnip: Direct seed outdoors, thin seedlings to 5cm apart
Sun requirement for parsnip: Plant in Full Sun
Parsnips are a root vegetable closely related to carrots and celery. They look like thick white carrots with larger, slightly rough foliage. Parsnips taste similar to carrots, except that they are sweeter, especially when cooked. Like carrots, they can be broiled, pureed, roasted, steamed, and baked into cakes. They become even sweeter in flavor after winter frosts. Before cane sugar arrived in Europe, they were used as a sweetener. The stems and foliage of the parsnip can cause a skin rash - wear long sleeves, pants, and gloves when weeding and harvesting.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For parsnip, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 5°C and a shortest growing cycle of 80 days at its best temperature, about 1040 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your parsnip will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by shiny,
Beans, peas and corn: remove husks and allow seeds to dry out – this may take a couple of weeks, then remove casings and store.
Pumpkins and melons: seeds need to be washed and set aside to dry for a week or so before …
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by shiny,
I'm going to attempt to grow potato over winter. To prepare I'm going to do a full garden bed of mustard and then dig the greens into the soil. Add compost and blood and bone. I've never attempted potato over winter. It can get very wet here, and in …
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by oakandsage,
Banana s have taken off. Both doing well. They only have about a month before the weather starts getting a bit cold, nights are already getting down to 50F some nights. Will have to think about frost protection soon.
Grapes that survived are doing well. The one …
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by neotoma,
I had the first tiny strawberry of the season today! I'm looking forward to many more.
Also, I transplanted a lot of seedlings into the community garden today: 2 cucumbers, 3 green beans, 2 tongue-of-fire beans, an ornamental [sweet potato](/crops/swee…
green beans
sweet potatoes
artichokes
lettuces
radishes
carrots
parsnips
sunflowers
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If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 80 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Pastinaca sativa L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Apiales Umbelliferae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual, biennial |
| Habit | acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Resources outside Growstuff.
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beans
shiny harvested not specified.
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