My Parsely keeps dying.

[bagnally]

I am trying to grow parsley. I have tried to grow it in my garden in a pot..it just dyes after one or two harvests; then I decided to plant some down our allotment in the ground. At first it was doing really well, better than it had done at home in the pot. Now the plant at the allotment has died. Can anyone tell me please how I can successfully grow parsley so I can get regular harvests from it? I will add that the particular plant I have is about two or three years old, it seems to come back in the spring after laying dormant in it's pot.

[Millymollymandy]

Parsley is a biennial meaning it grows one year then goes to seed and (presumably) dies the next. I don't know how you've managed to keep one alive for so long! Mine all die in the winter anyway as it can't take cold weather.

I sow from seed afresh every spring then prick out into small pots, wait until they are big enough to plant out and they grow enormous in no time. They do have the most gigantic root system so I wouldn't advise growing it permanently in a pot.

I can't really help as to what you are doing wrong unless you mean that your plants are dying either in the winter or in their 2nd year, which is normal.

[Thomzo]

Didn't they used to say that if you could grow parsley, then you must be a witch (the old-fashioned bad kind of burn-at-the-stake witch)? I guess that means it's really difficult to grow successfully.

Having said that, I bought a parsley plant from the supermarket about three years ago and it still limps along in a little pot on my kitchen windowsill. I never let it flower or set seed though. Perhaps restricting the roots helps?

Zoe

[dave45]

fwiw one of those supermarket windowsill herb pots was failing badly, going yellow and manky, so I planted it in the garden... now thriving and 3 times the size... not sure how it will fare over winter though, but currently its ace

[Clarry]

I inherited a parlsey plant over the weekend that was more yellow than green and rather limp.
I removed all the yellow bits stuck it outside in the rain and it's come back to life

Will keeping it inside stop it from dying over the winter?

[StripyPixieSocks]

Well being a witch must be why my parsley is brilliant then I guess.

Make sure it gets lots of light and water, we use old fish tank water on ours and it's been through snow, ice and everything and is still green. This year however it is yellow and flowering but if you leave it, next year it will have seeded itself and you will have lovely parsley once again :)

[Peggy Sue]

There's loads of sayings about parsley
Always get a woman to plant it
The third sowing will be successful ( a mark of how hard it is to grow!)
Some say our boiling water on the soil first before sowing (can't remember the reason this works... maybe it needs warmth)
Don't transplant as it hates its roots being disturbed

The supermarket pot herbs are designed not to survive long, so if you get them going you are doing well- if you don't then don't worry! The shop obviuosly wants you to come back and buy more.

I have found it does take 3 sowings- so it must like the later warmer soil, it doesn't do well in a pot for me, and doesn't like transplanting (I've done it in bogroll middle so that the roots are not disturbed at transplanting). It seems to thrive on the allotment once I get it going but I never harvest the lot.
It also survives the winter well (we are a pretty warm area though) and will self seed given half a chance!
Have had no success at all with Hamburg parsley, the roots are tiny

Hope something helps