North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> I am just digging up my first parsnip crop.  It looks more like science 
> fiction than it does like a store parsnip.  There is a very broad (8 or 9 
> inch) crown which is maybe 5 inches deep and then disintegrates into a 
> twisted mass of roots suitable for late night TV SciFi movies.  What happened?
>   


Um,... aliens?  :-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I don't know, but I planted carrots this year 
(carrots! what was I thinking?) that ended up that way. But this was in 
heavy clay soil that hadn't been worked before, and it turned into a 
brick in our hot, dry summer. How is your soil there? If it's too hard, 
the root might have trouble forming a nice round shape, and just expand 
where it finds cracks and crevices.

Just an idea. I've never grown parsnips myself.

Bill

--
In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it 
would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples 
might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal 
time in physics classrooms. - Stephen Jay Gould