Tips from Olle Garden Bed: How To Quickly And Easily Grow Parsley Miniature Vegetables

There are many good reasons why parsley is famous. This is a beautiful decoration, delicious and easy to plant. You may think it is difficult to improve such a comprehensive herbal medicine, but we have a way. The parsley is more beautiful, delicious and simple when grown as a miniature vegetable. This content also has some reference value for raised garden beds.

Parsley miniature vegetables are common parsley plants, which have one main difference: they are harvested very early. Instead of waiting for a bunch of mature herbaceous leaves, we harvest cotyledons, sometimes even the first real leaf. These herbs have a sweeter, milder parsley flavor. They are also smaller and finer, which makes them a clever decoration for many dishes. The parsley greens go well with most Italian and tomato dishes, including pesto, soup, salad, sandwiches and pasta.

The parsley miniature vegetables may be smaller than the adult parsley, but they are actually more nutritious. The parsley miniature vegetables contain a lot of nutrients, such as vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Only a handful of parsley micro green vegetables can improve the nutrition of a meal.

Some of the types of parsley you will encounter are flat leaf parsley, rolled leaf parsley, and Italian parsley Any of these can be grown as miniature vegetables and should be very similar. Every parsley sprouts spring green leaves on its white stems. Although true leaves may be curly, cotyledons are smooth oval.

There is a problem with parsley miniature vegetables. They are one of the slowest growing miniature vegetables. Usually, you can plant miniature vegetables in a week or two. It takes at least 21 days for parsley miniature vegetables to be ready for harvest - more than half of them are waiting for the seeds to germinate! However, compared with planting complete parsley plants, parsley miniature vegetables are three times faster. In addition, they can be grown indoors all year round. So why not try and replace your parsley plant with something smaller?

Quick information of parsley light green vegetables

Taste: sweet, mild parsley

Soak: 4-8 hours

Rinse/drain: Yes

Germination: 7-20 days

Ideal harvest: 21+days

Planting parsley miniature vegetables

This may take a while, but growing parsley mini vegetables is still an easy thing.

Material Science

Before we go into planting techniques, let's collect some supplies. Here's how to grow parsley mini vegetables (and most other mini vegetables!

Seeds: Any kind of parsley seeds - flat leaf parsley, Italian parsley and rolled leaf parsley seeds are good choices

Growth medium: we recommend Espoma's seed starter mixture or coconut shell

Lighting: T5 plant growth lamp is strongly recommended

Container: two shallow growth trays, one is solid and the other has drain holes

Light weight (no more than 5 pounds)

Spray bottle

Kitchen scissors

Tissue

Storage containers or bags

Other micro vegetables can be grown by hydroponics, such as borage micro vegetables. However, parsley prefers to take root in the soil. The growth medium you choose should be fine enough so that tiny roots can be easily navigated. This is usually best achieved by seeding the soil. Another favorite of micro vegetables is coconut shell fiber, which can keep water well.

Parsley miniature vegetables are grown indoors all year round, so they need a consistent light source. Micro vegetables also need to be close to and directly under light to grow evenly. This is why we always recommend plant growth lights This is an investment in indoor gardening, but a good growth lamp will help you grow healthy and delicious miniature vegetables season after season.

Soak

Soaking before sowing can help the slightly green seeds germinate faster, which is exactly what we need for parsley and its longer germination time. Soak the slightly green seeds of parsley in warm water for 4-8 hours. Then, continue planting immediately.

Plant

Soaking will quickly start the germination process of parsley seeds, but planting is the real reason for magic. First, lay the coconut shell or seed starting soil you choose in the growth tray. Then, the soaked seeds are evenly spread on the soil surface. Gently tamp the seeds to give them a good mist.

When growing miniature vegetables, we use cover plates instead of covering seeds with soil. Place the second non porous tray directly on top of the seed soil surface. Then, press down the tray with a 1-5 pound object (such as a stone). This is the beginning of the "blackout period" when parsley seeds germinate in the dark.

Your parsley greenish seeds should be left in the dark until they are fully sprouted and germinated. This may take 1-2 weeks, so you may need to peek at them occasionally and provide a drop of water.

Increase

After the seeds germinate, your parsley mini will be pushed onto the weighted cover plate. They will lift the tray together to look for light. At this point, you can remove the tray and take care of the bean sprouts.

Your parsley mini veggies will be pale at first because they don't have any light. Place T5 growth lamp directly one or two feet above the tray. With at least 12 hours of light per day, parsley miniature vegetables produce chlorophyll and turn green.

Check the soil every day to make sure it is wet enough. When you need watering, use the bottom watering method. This method is very popular in growing micro vegetables, because it can prevent over watering and prevent the soil or coconut shell from mildewing.

For bottom water, add some water to the solid tray that was once a hood. Then, the growth disk is put into it so that the growth medium can absorb water through the drain hole. After 10-15 minutes, remove the bottom tray. Repeat this process as often as necessary until your parsley mini vegetables are ready to be harvested.

Harvest

As we mentioned earlier, most micro vegetables are designed to harvest their fully developed cotyledons, sometimes even the first real leaf. You can harvest parsley miniature vegetables or collect the whole crop at once as needed.

The earliest harvest is when the cotyledons are fully unfolded. However, for parsley miniature, many gardeners wait for the first real leaf to appear. You will not only get a bigger harvest, but also the taste of micro vegetables will be more like mature parsley.

When you are sure that the parsley greens are ready to be harvested, use sharp knives or scissors to cut the stems above the soil level. Defer cleaning the harvest until you are about to use it.

Once cut off, parsley will not regenerate unless you leave some lower leaves on each bud. Even so, the second crop will be weaker and taste worse than the first. The best option is to compost the soil or coconut shells and sprout new seeds.

Storage

Your newly harvested delicious mini vegetables will become a perfect decoration for tomato dishes. Sprinkle chopped parsley greens on salads, soups or pasta. Even a small amount will add a lot of flavor to the recipe.

The slightly green harvest of parsley can be kept fresh like the storage of parsley. Loosely wrap micro vegetable crops with dry paper towels and seal them in storage bags or containers. Store them in the refrigerator's fresh box drawer. There, miniature vegetables should be kept fresh and flavorful for at least 3-5 days (more if you change the paper towels).