Parsnips are grown for their delicate-tasting roots, which grow up to 15 inches long and 3 to 4 inches across at the top. The plants are biennials but are grown as annuals and should be harvested before the second year’s leaves form.
Never pick any wild plant that looks like parsnip; the poisonous water hemlock is easily mistaken for it. Good varieties of parsnips are All American, Guernsey, Model and Hollow Crown. A 15-foot row yields about 15 pounds in a single harvesting.
Parsnips grow best in a soil of pH 5.5 to 7.0 that has been cultivated about 18 inches deep and freed of all rocks to allow the roots to grow smooth and straight. In most of the U.S. and southern Canada, where frost is expected in winter, sow seeds as soon as the ground can be worked in early spring. In regions where winter temperatures rarely fall below 25, sow seeds in early fall for harvesting the following spring.
Ordinary onions can be harvested about five months after the seeds are sown or about three and one half months after sets or young plants are planted.
The plants are cold resistant and can be grown over winter to provide tender young stems in early spring. Bunching onions keep only one to two weeks. Good varieties are Evergreen White Bunching and Hardy White Bunching. A 10-foot row yields about 10 bunches over four weeks.
Onions grow best in soil with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0. They can be started from seeds, small bulbs (called sets) or small plants. Because onions grown from seeds need five months to mature and because the plants are tedious to weed when small, it is easier and faster to use sets or young plants.
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