Friday, January 04, 2019

Meet Percy..

As some of you will remember, 2018 was not my year for parsnips, something I'm normally quite good with. In fact we have only two this year.

We popped down to check covers etc over the weekend and decided to dig up this fellow, one of the cleanest parsnips I've actually ever grown, at the moment he is destined to be soup. 


Elsewhere there is very little left growing, just some chard, kale, slightly eaten cabbage, holey carrots and the last parsnip.

The Cape Gooseberries and Chillies have been killed off by the frost and once again the allium leaf miner struck and ruined what was once looking like a promising leek crop. That's 3 years in a row now I have had trouble with these pests.  I know a few fellow plot holders have also had issues, although it seems totally random who they hit. 

There doesn't seem to be any chemical control available but here is an extract from the RHS site regarding non chemical control

"Plants can be protected by covering them with horticultural fleece, or an insect-proof mesh such as Ultra-Fine Enviromesh, at times when the adult flies are active and laying eggs (March to April and October to November). Crop rotation must be used, as adult flies might emerge from pupae underneath the covering if susceptible plants are grown in the same piece of ground in successive years."

I will be growing onions and leeks from seed this year and am unlikely to plant them out before May, so it appears that my best hope is cover any unharvested crops for Oct-Nov. Guess we'll give that a try.

Happy gardening folks!

4 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

Our parsnips are really good this year although bizarrely our plot neighbour just couldn’t get his to even germinate. Gardening is a mystery.

Daisy Debs said...

A beautiful Parsnip indeed ! I am just waiting for the postman to bring me another lot of environmesh .Lets hope for a more normal weather pattern this Spring/Summer !

Dicky said...

I can't say for sure what variety he is, I planted a second lot after the first try failed.

I'm really hoping for a normal season. I've spent hours doing paths and making life eaisier for this, want somethin to show for it.!!

Mal said...

I'm in the same boat for parsnips. We ate all three for Christmas dinner - and they were forked!