How to grow parsley

The key to successful parsley is to give the crop some heat initially. At this time of year follow these steps:

- Fill a half seed tray with fresh seed sowing compost. Use a tamper to lightly press the surface to make it flat. At this stage its good to water the seed tray using mains water only and a fine rose on the watering can. Drain.

- Sprinkle fresh parsley seed over the compost and cover with vermiculite to a depth of 2 mm

- Cover the seed tray with a sheet of glass and some paper to keep direct sun off the glass then place the tray in a thermostatically controlled propagator set at a temp of about 20C. The glass means that watering is kept to a minimum and keeps the heat around the seed but you need to turn it over daily without letting the droplets fall onto the seed tray. (Droplets can be a cause of "damping off" - a generic term for fungal problems that kill seedlings in their early life). This allows you to examine the tray for emerging seed.

- When you next water try sitting the seed tray in a 'tray' that holds enough water to come halfway up the side of the seed tray. This way you will avoid the perennial problems many people face of 'damping off.'

- Once the seed comes through (7-14 days), remove the glass entirely and take the seed tray off the propagator and place on a shelf of the glasshouse in maximum light. Ideally the glasshouse should be heated maintaining a minimum night temp of 10C so that the seed keeps on growing. Cold glasshouses ie those without heating have too great a temperature swing between day and night for successful germination early in the year. They are OK as the season progresses and night time temperatures naturally rise.

- After the seedlings have grown a little and have developed a pair of leaves, prick them into 9cm clean plastic pots in the same growing medium as for sowing. Prick out three seedlings into one pot and treat those three as one plant from that moment onwards.

- Water with seaweed extract like maxicrop weekly from pricking out stage to maintain growth.

You can follow this procedure for many types of propagating. Once mastered it allows you to sow and grow with more confidence at this time of year.

and sow seed in July for the next crop.

Advice given by Sarah Wain, Gardens Supervisor, West Dean Gardens

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