Gadenin日本語Get the appSlow germination is the seed doing its job
Parsley seed carries compounds in its coat that hold germination back until enough water has passed through to wash them out. In the wild that stops a whole shed of seed sprouting after one shower and dying in the next dry spell. In a seedbed it means you wait: two to three weeks is normal, and four weeks in cool soil is not a failure.
The practical result is that you cannot judge a parsley sowing at ten days. Gardeners who re-sow at that point usually end up with two overlapping flushes and blame the first packet. Mark the sowing date, then leave the row alone for a full four weeks before you decide anything.
Soil temperature sets the pace more than anything else. Parsley will germinate anywhere from 50F (10C) to 85F (29C), but it is fastest and most even around 70F (21C). At 50F (10C) expect four weeks or more; at 70F (21C) expect twelve to eighteen days. Sowing into cold spring soil is the single most common reason a row comes up thin.
Soaking the seed in water overnight, then rinsing and sowing it damp, washes out some of the inhibitors and usually pulls germination forward by three to five days. It does not make parsley fast, only less erratic.
The seedbed has to stay damp for a month
A month is a long time to keep the top half inch of soil moist, and that is the real difficulty of sowing parsley. Seed that swells, starts to move, then dries out for a day is dead. Most thin parsley rows are dried-out rows, not bad seed.
- Water the drill before you sow Draw the drill, water along the bottom of it, and let it drain. Sowing into already damp soil means the seed starts taking up water immediately instead of waiting for your next watering can.
- Cover thinly and firm it Quarter of an inch (6 mm) of sifted compost is enough. Press it down with the flat of your hand so the seed is in contact with damp soil rather than sitting in an air pocket.
- Lay something over the row A board, a length of damp burlap or a sheet of cardboard on the row holds moisture in far better than daily watering. Lift it every three days to check, and take it off the day the first shoots appear.
- Water little and often A fine rose every day or two in dry weather, enough to wet the top inch (2.5 cm). Heavy watering washes the shallow seed into clumps and makes emergence patchier still.
- Sow a marker crop in the row A few radish seeds along the same drill come up in four days and show you exactly where the row is, so you weed and water the right strip for the three weeks before parsley appears.
Depth, spacing and thinning
Parsley seedlings look identical to several common weeds for their first fortnight, so proper spacing at the start saves a lot of squinting later. Sow thicker than you need and thin in two passes rather than trying to place single seeds.
| Item | Figure | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Sowing depth | 1/4 inch (6 mm) | Deeper than this and the small seed exhausts itself before reaching light |
| Soil temperature | 60 to 75F (16 to 24C) | Below 50F (10C) germination stalls and seed rots |
| Days to emerge | 14 to 28 | Anything inside four weeks is normal, so do not re-sow early |
| First thinning | At two true leaves, to 2 inches (5 cm) | Stops the seedlings drawing each other up thin |
| Final spacing | 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) | Full-size plants need the room or the inner leaves stay small and damp |
| Row spacing | 12 inches (30 cm) | Enough air movement to keep leaf spot down |
Thin by pinching seedlings off at soil level rather than pulling them. Parsley roots tangle at this stage and pulling one lifts its neighbor with it.
Sow where it will grow, or use deep cells
Parsley makes a genuine taproot within a few weeks of germinating. Once that root has hit the bottom of a shallow tray and turned sideways, the plant never grows away as strongly, and it is more likely to run to seed early. Direct sowing avoids the problem entirely.
If you need the head start, sow into cells at least 3 inches (8 cm) deep, two or three seeds per cell, and plant out at four true leaves without teasing the roots apart. Thin to the strongest seedling instead of transplanting seedlings. Plants moved on later than that sulk for weeks and often stay stunted for the season.
Both flat-leaved and curled parsley behave the same way at this stage. The curled types tend to germinate a day or two later and put on top growth more slowly for the first month, so do not read a slower curled row as a problem with the seed.
What to write down at sowing
Parsley is the crop where records pay off fastest, because everything happens too slowly to hold in your head. Note the sowing date, the soil temperature if you took it, whether you soaked the seed, and the date the first seedling appeared. Two seasons of that tells you exactly how early you can usefully sow in your own garden.
Also record where the row was. Parsley shares soil-borne problems with carrots, celery and parsnips, and the simplest defense is a three-year gap. Without a note of last year's position you will guess, and the guess is usually wrong.