Safe to Plant

Vegetable · Apiaceae

When to plant parsley root

A parsley bred for its parsnip-like root, with usable leaves as a bonus. Slower to germinate than almost anything else, and easily given up on too early.

Sow direct

2 weeks before

Counted from your last spring frost.

Days to maturity

90-120

From sowing to a first picking.

Frost tolerance

Very hardy

How much cold the plant itself will take.

Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.

Timing, in frost-relative terms

Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make parsley root plantable anywhere.

  • Sow direct 2 weeks before the last frost.
  • Expect 90–120 days to maturity, counted from sowing.

Getting the timing right

Sow two weeks before the last frost and expect three to four weeks before anything appears. Lift from autumn or leave in the ground and dig as needed.

Frost tolerance

The root is hardy well below -12C and sweetens after frost, exactly as a parsnip does.

Classified as very-hardy, with damage expected below -12°C (10.4°F).