Greetings Fellow Gardeners!

I am a self taught gourmet cook, and I love cooking with some of these vegetables, yet the price for them is exorbitant. Do any of you have experience growing any of them? I assume parsnips are grown like carrots...
For "root" vegetables...do you leave the plant in the dirt longer??
Most of the fennel bulbs you see at the store are not too big, doesnt the plant get pretty big?? i.e: take up alot of room in the garden..

cipollini onions?

Gosh - you're asking for a lot of precise information here that would be better supplied if you just did some online research yourself on each vegetable.

In brief:

Parsnips aren't really grown "like carrots". They require much deeper soil conditions to really do them proud. In fact, some folks actually use iron bars to dig really deep holes for parsnips - it can be an art form. The old "Victory Garden" program once devoted almost 1/2 an episode to growing them.

You don't leave root vegetables any longer than any other vegetable. When they're ready they're ready, & that differs from one type to another. I've had baby beets & baby carrots ready to pull in 35-45 days or less, while other varieties can run 60-75 days. It really does depend on the variety. But the same can be said for tomatoes, peppers - literally any vegetable.

Fennel (as in "Florence Fennel", which is the bulb type & different from herbal "Fennel") isn't a root vegetable at all. The bulb forms at the base of the plant, & the fronds do grow quite tall. Since the fronds grow up rather than out, the plant does not take up a lot of room in the garden.

I don't have any first-hand experience growing celery root, but this isn't really a root vegetable either - sort of grows 1/2 & 1/2 above/below the ground. No experience with parsley root either, so can't tell you if it needs treatment like a carrot, or more like a parsnip.

Again - your best bet is to start doing some reading or online research before next spring. I actually love the fall/winter because it gives me time to research new varieties before seed-buying time.

As for going back to Standard Time - unfortunately my pack of "hounds from h***" didn't care. And it didn't exactly enthuse my husband to be walking them at 3 a.m. instead of 4 a.m. either - lol!!!

Parsnips take a long time to mature so you seed in late spring and harvest after frost in late fall for best taste- that is for the north. I believe parsley root is similar but I haven't grown it. They are both in the same family of plants with umbrella shaped seed heads- parsley, carrots, dill etc. I think parsnips are as easy to grow as big carrots except for the longer life they need. I have deep sand and they like that.
Fennel is hard to grow IMO and other plants don't like it evidently. I never got any to get big like at the store. Your area may be just right for it though. It can be direct seeded. It tends to bolt and some say a later season crop does better. Space and water are needed to prevent bolting.
I think celeriac is another long day vegetable. It is most like a kohlrabi in form (swollen stem). My english gardening book says to start them inside in March and plant in June into good soil and that there is little pest or disease problems.
Hope this helps.

Red, the parsnips do take a deeper hole, but require the same care and feeding as carrots. In your area I'd think you can plant parsnips now and have some ready by June or July of next year, or possibly earlier. I've planted rutabagas, turnips, parsnips and carrots recently, and expect that they will overwinter well, and we're in about the same USDA zone, altho different weather patterns. Unless we have a particularly cold winter, I haven't had problems with root crops freezing, except for some of the large purple top turnips which were exposed to the air. I haven't grown fennel (either variety) or celeriac, but Barbara Damrosch puts celery and celeriac in the same category, but says that celeriac is more frost resistant and can be kept much longer than celery. She recommends a hay mulch for protection, and also recommends fennels be grown in the cooler parts of the year.

wow! - thank you everyone!
well... my garden isnt ready for planting, it's just "dirt" right now, with organics on top.
We DO get frosts, but not a lot or long. Last year we had snow on and off for almost 3 weeks, last time this occured was 40 YEARS AGO!

So I'm hearing that the root vegetables: celery and parsley are not the same "species" or "variety" as the herb or vegetable??
Yes, Breezy, thank you for reminding me to do my research

Gosh, I just love all the ideas and experience I get here,
thank you again!
Red

"T H I S just IN!"

Parsley root is also called Hamburg parsley, Dutch parsley, and turnip-rooted parsley.

You will find parsley root at your farm market from August through April. The best supply of parsley root is in January. A touch of frost will improve its sweetness and flavor.


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How to Grow Fennel:

Fennel is easy to grow. They prefer full sun and a well drained soil. They will do best in rich soils.Water them during dry periods, once or twice per week. Add a general purpose fertilizer once or twice a season.

Harvest leaves as at any time. Harvest flower heads after seeds have formed and the flower head has died. Extract seeds and dry them in a cool, dry location.

Harvest bulbs when they reach tennis ball size or bigger. Pull every other one out as needed to allow those remaining to grow even bigger.

Do not pull these plants up in advance of the first frost. They are very hardy and should continue to thrive and grow, even after a number of hard frosts.



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BTW: This year, I grew some fennel in containers for use as "micro greens" MMMmmmm! They're still growing, and I've harvested twice!


okay, just to be a pill, what about cipollini onions?
I mean, experience, tendancies, likes and dislikes, whatever you want to interject!

"If you have trouble finding Cipollini Onions in grocery stores we suggest you buy Cipollini Onion Seeds and grow them yourself, They grow fairly easily and do not need a lot of light or fertilizer. Cipollinis may also be grown indoors near a south or southwest facing kitchen window, or using a fluorescent plant grow light. In fact, it is good to start the onion seedlings sprouting and growing indoors. When the cipollinis' start to increase growth move them outdoors early in the growing season."

I've grown Cipollini onions and they are very good and easy to grow. Loved them in soup and stews. Good reminder I should put some in now.
veggie gal.

I hadn't noticed that you wrote cippolinis too. I grew some last year. They performed the same as regular onions for me. I started from seed in like January I think.

I believe celery root is in the celery family but that is the family I have the least interest in!
Parlsey, parsley root, carrots, dill, parsnips and queen anne's lace are all in the umbrelliceae (sp) family. Most are biennials and have similar shaped leaves too.

Funny that info said fennel is easy to grow. I have always thought it was regarded as tricky.

i dont understand why some stuff is so expensive. Just yester, i was groc. shopping; the cipollinis were 3.49 and the regular brown onion .79

and tomatos, most tomato plants are abundant and fairly easy to grow, I know I'm always giving away alot...

Thanks for listening, I'm just wining.

I think cipollini onions are considered "gourmet" type food; hence inflated price. I love them!

We will be growing them from seed in the early winter to put out later in spring. This year we had very good luck with onions. Will grow leeks this way as well.

A trick that Eliot Coleman uses to transplant leeks sounds like it would work well for parsnips, etc. Basically using a dowel with a "spatula" shaped flat end, pushing it down, twisting and dropping the transplants into the hole. I used this method planting leeks for the winter beds...worked well. Barbara Damrosch is married to Eliot Coleman; they have been perfecting these methods for years, yet still pay close attention to see if anything can be improved...my heroes!

Peace

Gail

That's one of the fun parts of growing what you like to eat--it doesn't cost more--or at least much more--to grow the "expensive" and "exotic" or trendy veggies than the standard varieties.

Peace, That dowel thing almost sounds like a "wood spoon"? (with a long handle?)

Wiley, yes, that's my positiong exactly! The reason I started growing my own anything was for culinary herbs. $2 a package, bah!