Parsley Shamrocks
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The parsley plants I seeded indoors a couple of weeks ago are getting their second set of leaves now. As if on queue for St. Patrick's Day, they look like miniature shamrocks.
Last year, I didn't have good fortune with my parsley growing endeavors. I sowed seeds directly into the garden -- on about five different occasions in various areas of the plot -- but nothing sprouted until about October. And then the tiny plants went into their dormancy for the winter.
In other years, parsley was very easy to grow from seed, so I'm not sure what made the difference from one year to the next. Perhaps I planted it when the summer temperatures were too hot? Or the soil too dry? In any case, my new parsley "shamrocks" are perfectly content under the grow lights for now. This could be a sign of good luck for the season to come.
5 Comments:
Very cool. I can see I need to get going on my own garden. It's supposed to be warm here this weekend, but I have a big project I need to be working on. Still, maybe I can sneak in a few hours.
I've had mixed results growing parsley from seed too. I read somewhere it's one of the seeds that takes the very longest to sprout.
Parsley is part of the Apiaceae family, which includes carrots, parsnips, fennel, carraway, dill, chervil and poison hemlock, to name a few. They all have similar foliage and they the seeds all take a long time to germinate, typically three weeks or more. You can speed up the germination process by soaking the seeds in warm water overnight.
Sew sides outdoors from very early spring through late Summer. Parsley is a bienniel, meaning it will come back a second year. But usually in the second year it just wants to bolt and make seeds, so I treat it as an annual.
Christa, I'm surprised you had trouble sewing parsley seeds outdoors. It usually grows like a weed. You may have had a bad batch of seeds. Did you get them off a rack somewhere, or did you buy them online? I hardley ever buy seeds off a rack anymore. But glad to see your seedlings are doing so well.
http://www.theslowcook.blogspot.com/
I've had troubbles with parsley too. Several times I've tried to grow it in pots, and it just shrivels away after a few weeks. I guess it's a picky plant and demands a few things that need to be fullfilled (like a lot of water and a deep container in my case). I think you'll have better results since you can plant your parsley in an actual garden.
Oh, and I loved the photo!
Happy Gardening!
Nice green! Can't have too much parsley, I say!
I planted seeds indoors 2 weeks ago - nothing yet. THey are old seeds so that could be a problem. I do have sweet self-seeded seedlings from last years crop. I've actually already used some in salad. The seeds I planted indoors are a different type so I hoped to add them to the garden this year. I'll wait a little longer then maybe try again.
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