Parsley has a very fine seed. It can therefore quickly happen that you sow it too densely and that the plants later have too little space. By pricking out - i.e. thinning out - the plants, you ensure that bushy plants can develop.
When and how should you prick parsley?
Prick out parsley outdoors when it is around 5 centimeters tall by separating the plants at a distance of 10 centimeters in the row, 15 centimeters between rows and 20 centimeters from other vegetable and herb plants. For potted parsley, remove all but one of the plants as soon as they reach 5 centimeters.
Prick out parsley in good time outdoors
Try to sow the parsley as thinly as possible. However, you should not put too few seeds in the ground, as not every seed will germinate.
Parsley that you have sown in rows outdoors in spring needs some time until it is large enough to be pricked out. August sowings germinate more quickly and can be thinned out sooner.
As soon as the plants have reached a height of around five centimeters, separate them in the row at a planting distance of
- 10 centimeters in a row
- 15 centimeters between rows
- 20 centimeters to other vegetables and herbs
Pricking potted parsley
If you sow parsley in a pot for the balcony, put five to seven seeds in each pot.
As soon as the parsley is five centimeters tall, pull out all but one of the plants.
Prick out as carefully as possible, because you can transplant the pulled parsley seedlings into pots in which the seeds have not sprouted. However, this only works if the stems are not bent and you have pulled out all the roots.
Sowing parsley together with radishes
A good way to avoid overseeding is to mix the parsley seed with a marker seed such as radish. This has the advantage that you can better identify and care for the parsley rows.
When the parsley finally starts to develop larger plants, you can already harvest the radishes to make room. Mixed sowing means you have to plant far fewer plants at the ideal planting distance.
Tips & Tricks
Parsley seeds should be soaked in lukewarm water for several hours before sowing. The seeds will then germinate more quickly and you will be able to harvest parsley sooner. Since the wet seeds tend to stick to your hand when sowing, simply mix them with fine sand (€6.00 on Amazon), for example from the aquarium. Then sowing is much easier.