Sowing parsley is not difficult. It is much more difficult for impatient gardeners to have enough patience for the seed to germinate. This can sometimes take several weeks. It's a little quicker if you water the seeds beforehand.
How do you sow parsley correctly?
To sow parsley successfully, you should first soak the seeds in lukewarm water for a few hours. Then sow the parsley in a pot or outdoors, cover it with soil and keep the soil moist. Germination can take up to four weeks.
What you need to know about sowing parsley
- Dark Germ
- Germinates slowly
- Soak seeds before sowing
- Sowing potted parsley in February
- It is better not to sow parsley outdoors until August
The best time to sow parsley
You can sow parsley in pots from February to August.
Parsley is sown outdoors from March. The ground temperature must be at least eight degrees.
It is cheaper to plant the parsley seeds in the ground from August onwards. Then pests no longer play such a big role and the dreaded parsley disease can be largely avoided.
Parsley germinates very slowly
Since the herb takes quite a long time until the first leaves appear, soak the seeds before sowing.
To do this, place it in lukewarm water for several hours. To make it easier to sow the moist seeds, mix them with some fine sand.
Mixing in radish seeds has also proven effective. Since radishes germinate much faster, you can take better care of the rows. The radishes have long been harvested when the parsley needs the space.
Sowing parsley outdoors
Choose a partially shaded location with soil that is not too dry and on which no umbelliferous plants have grown three years previously.
Prepare a bed for the herb by loosening the soil thoroughly, removing weeds and finishing it with ripe compost, horn meal (€6.00 on Amazon) or horn shavings.
Draw rows 15 to 20 centimeters apart. The sowing depth should be around 1.5 centimeters because, unlike other herbs, parsley is not a light germinator, but a dark germinator.
Sowing parsley in rows
Sow the seeds in the prepared grooves and cover them with at least a centimeter of soil.
Keep the surface well moist. It can take up to four weeks for parsley to germinate.
Once the plants have reached a height of five centimeters, you need to prick them out. The ideal planting distance is ten centimeters.
Sowing parsley in the pot
Fill small pots with potting soil. Sow up to ten seeds per pot and cover them with soil. Moisten the surface and place the pots in a warm place.
Tips & Tricks
Once the plants have emerged, separate them to one parsley plant per pot. From a size of seven centimeters you can also easily plant outdoors.
