Parsley problems

Gardening to 'grow your own food' from square foot to half an acre !!
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Freeranger
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Parsley problems

Post by Freeranger »

I bought some small curly parsley plants last year and never got around to planting them out. I put them in supermarket veg trays with drainage and left them on a south-facing but cold windowsill.
They never really thrived, and the windowsill was covered in little tiny flies/aphids. They died back in September and then a couple of the plants have grown the odd new stem, but some of them appear to have been eaten or cut off. So:
1) Should I have expected them to grow back or do they need to be replaced each year?
2) What could be damaging the new ones? No obvious sign of flies/spiders now.

Thanks for any help.
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lancashire lass
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Re: Parsley problems

Post by lancashire lass »

parsley like carrots, parsnips, fennel, dill, coriander (cow parsley, hogweed, hemlock) tend to flower in the second year so probably best to get new plants

Freeranger wrote:2) What could be damaging the new ones? No obvious sign of flies/spiders now.


it could be any thing TBH. Aphids may seem small but they can do a lot more damage than we give them credit for especially for small tender plants - if they are sucking the nutrients, plants are not going to thrive. Maybe the plants were already stressed such as needing bigger plant pots and fresh compost/fertilizer, or they didn't get enough light or water (or too cold) Don't forget that it is still "winter" for them so technically after they died back (the cold & lack of sunlight might have triggered this), they should not be making an appearance until about April, and even then, energy stores will most likely be diverted to flower production rather than leaf production.
Freeranger
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Re: Parsley problems

Post by Freeranger »

Thank you, LL. That's a really helpful answer.
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