Parsley and other problems
5 May 2019 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI bought a pot of 'live parsley' from the supermarket in the hopes of being able to put it in a more favourable environment (i.e. a bigger pot) and use it long-term; they are designed to live for a few days on the windowsill but not threaten the supermarket's supply of customers ;-p
I had a lot of success with a pot of mint bought last year under similar circumstances; when I took it out of its pot I discovered somewhat to my outrage that the poor thing actually had a tiny strip of plastic far smaller than the display pot constricting its roots -- probably the original egg-cup sized container it was germinated in -- and naturally when I liberated it from that it thrived and is currently vigorous. When I removed the parsley from its container I didn't find any such artificial kill-mechanism installed, although obviously it was very pot-bound with almost no soil and all roots, so I don't know how it will respond.
I split the pot in two, and used the two halves to fill up my own larger pots of seed-grown parsley, which have been failing to thrive. I thought they had been struggling because of the heat, not liking to have their roots baked, but when I emptied the pots I found that underneath the big surface tap-roots (the ones the Russians use as a cooking ingredient) there was practically no root system, and several of the tap-roots themselves were hollow and squishy. I wonder if I have been over-watering them? The outside leaves have all died off, but I did think that since the cooler weather the centres were trying to put out new shoots... At any rate, there hasn't been enough new growth to use them for cooking for a long time.
I have replanted the little ones round the edges of the supermarket rootballs, where they may get some shade from the foliage -- they certainly aren't potbound.
The other thing I discovered in the pots when I emptied them was some very healthy worms -- goodness knows how long they had been living in there -- and a couple of buried peanuts, which confirms that it is the squirrel that has been destroying my seedlings by scrabbling the compost out of the pots. I have put the smaller pots underneath a plastic crate, but there isn't much I can do to protect these new feathery pots of parsley from being dug up... unless I try to knot together some kind of net from old wool to hang over them, and hope that deters him (as it certainly won't keep him out). I suspect the base problem is loose and easily-dug soil, since he hasn't attacked the little roses which have their pots all full of grass, but has dug around the marigolds which are in fresh compost.
I put the worms back in with the parsley, as I wasn't sure quite what else to do with them; I hope they haven't been eating the roots, as I'm really not sure what they can have been living on all this time...
I had a lot of success with a pot of mint bought last year under similar circumstances; when I took it out of its pot I discovered somewhat to my outrage that the poor thing actually had a tiny strip of plastic far smaller than the display pot constricting its roots -- probably the original egg-cup sized container it was germinated in -- and naturally when I liberated it from that it thrived and is currently vigorous. When I removed the parsley from its container I didn't find any such artificial kill-mechanism installed, although obviously it was very pot-bound with almost no soil and all roots, so I don't know how it will respond.
I split the pot in two, and used the two halves to fill up my own larger pots of seed-grown parsley, which have been failing to thrive. I thought they had been struggling because of the heat, not liking to have their roots baked, but when I emptied the pots I found that underneath the big surface tap-roots (the ones the Russians use as a cooking ingredient) there was practically no root system, and several of the tap-roots themselves were hollow and squishy. I wonder if I have been over-watering them? The outside leaves have all died off, but I did think that since the cooler weather the centres were trying to put out new shoots... At any rate, there hasn't been enough new growth to use them for cooking for a long time.
I have replanted the little ones round the edges of the supermarket rootballs, where they may get some shade from the foliage -- they certainly aren't potbound.
The other thing I discovered in the pots when I emptied them was some very healthy worms -- goodness knows how long they had been living in there -- and a couple of buried peanuts, which confirms that it is the squirrel that has been destroying my seedlings by scrabbling the compost out of the pots. I have put the smaller pots underneath a plastic crate, but there isn't much I can do to protect these new feathery pots of parsley from being dug up... unless I try to knot together some kind of net from old wool to hang over them, and hope that deters him (as it certainly won't keep him out). I suspect the base problem is loose and easily-dug soil, since he hasn't attacked the little roses which have their pots all full of grass, but has dug around the marigolds which are in fresh compost.
I put the worms back in with the parsley, as I wasn't sure quite what else to do with them; I hope they haven't been eating the roots, as I'm really not sure what they can have been living on all this time...
