Giant Parsley Breeding

A few years ago I started breeding giant parsley (Petroselinum crispum).  Parsley used to be a common garnish when I was a child.  When I was a little older a sprig of parsley used to be put on steaks or other meals at restaurants, with the intention that it was discarded rather than eaten.  Since then it has fallen even more out of favour.  Some people still grow parsley, and a few eat it, but it is a largely underutilised crop.  

I wanted to develop a new variety of parsley to be big and productive, so it could be primarily used as a leaf vegetable.  Eventually I had a variety (albeit not a completely stable variety) of comically large parsley that dwarfs any of the 'giant' varieties.  The taste of this huge parsley is much like other flat leaf varieties, perhaps a little stronger. 

Then, for a number of reasons, I stopped my breeding project.  I felt my parsley was getting too big.  I stopped selecting for larger plants, and other than picking leaves I mostly ignored my parsley and let it do its own thing.   

Parsley almost as long as my arm

Parsley is great.  It is simple to grow and in my garden it self seeds reliably.  For this reason I still have a lot of parsley around, all of which is descended from my giant parsley breeding project.  As there were a few generations with no selective pressure, there may have been some genetic drift.  Some plants are far larger than others.

Recently I spoke to someone who wanted a giant parsley and complained about how tiny and unimpressive 'Giant of Italy' parsley is.  He convinced me that there is merit in making parsley huge.  

After that conversation I went to my garden and looked to see what size parsley I have to work with if I ever wanted to increase its size again.  

As you can see, I still have some plants with reasonable size.  According to Wikipedia, Parsley leaves grow 10cm to 25cm long in its first year.  My parsley produce leaves that are far larger than that.  The leaf above is almost as long as my arm!  I measured a few leaves from my largest plants, and they were over 60cm long.  Some were about 67cm long.  

Parsley leaf around 66cm (26 inch) long

Parsley leaf about 67cm (26 inch) long

This parsley is still pretty big.  I have a number of plants around this size, and between them they probably have all the genetic potential to get a bit larger if I put in some effort.  I also have some smaller plants, I won't be allowing these to flower so their genes won't be in the mix. 

I once wondered if parsley petioles (leaf stalks) could be large enough to be used instead of celery stalks.  I had put some effort into breeding for fatter petioles and they were getting quite thick.  All of the leaf stalks in the celery at the moment are still a bit thin.  Most are about 1cm to 1.5cm thick.  This is still a lot thicker than the stuff you find in the supermarket, but not thick enough to replace celery.  At this stage I am undecided if I care too much about how thick the stalks are.

The parsley plant itself gets rather large and bushy.  I put a tape measure from the soil to give a bit of perspective.  For most of its growing season they are about two feet tall.  This is too large to grow on a windowsill, but it is a good size to grow in the garden or a large pot.  As you can see, it has a lot of leaves that can be picked.

Over the years I have had a lot of people come to my house to buy plants and seeds.  Some of these people have been gardening since before I was born.  My giant parsley astounds everyone who sees it.  Some people have to pick some and taste it before they can believe that it is even parsley.  

When this parsley flowers it can get very tall.  They tower over me when they are in bloom.  I am not exactly sure how tall they get as I never particularly cared how tall they reach and never measured them.  Flowering height is not something I would put any breeding effort into, but I should measure it one day just out of curiosity.  

Some leaves have a lot of stem and not enough leaf.  Others have a lot of leaf and not too much stem.  I never paid a great deal of attention to this as I believe it may be highly influenced by the growing environment.  

You can eat the stems, or feed them to animals.  As well as being healthy for people to eat, parsley is great for animals.  Parsley leaves and stems are loved by our guinea pigs.  Our chickens also eat the parsley stems, but they much prefer the leaves.  If nothing else, the stems are good in the compost, so there is no waste. 

Over two feet tall

Look at the size of this monster

I find it odd how simple parsley is to grow, how productive and nutritious it is, yet how rarely we use parsley as a leaf vegetable.  Parsley leaves have a lot of vitamins and minerals, according to research it is very high in Calcium, Iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin A.  

Just 5.5 grams of fresh parsley, which is about 1.5 tablespoons, provides the recommended daily intake of Vitamin K.  

Parsley contains 133mg Vitamin C per 100 grams, which is higher than oranges which have about 50mg per 100 grams.  

Parsley has about 138mg calcium per 100 grams, while cows milk has about 120mg calcium per 100 grams.  

Parsley contains around 6.2 milligrams of iron per 100 grams. To put this in perspective, spinach only has about 2.7mg of iron per 100 grams.  

I find it strange to think that parsley is mostly used as a garnish in this country when it has the potential to be something so much more.  It is so easy to grow and apparently very nutritious.  Each leaf of my parsley is absolutely massive, and with a little more breeding work they would get a bit larger.  

My giant parsley

Parsley this big should be more than a garnish

I used to know someone who bred rabbits for meat.  He used to feed the young rabbits parsley to increase their growth rates.  He said that parsley's high levels of calcium helped their bones grow fast so they could get up to full size quickly.  He would also feed parsley to lactating mothers to increase their milk supply and because he thought the high amounts of iron would help them recover from birthing.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but it makes sense to me.  

I wish I was growing this huge parsley back then and could have given him some seeds.  One of these giant plants has the potential to produce more leaves than a large plot of regular flat leaf parsley.  

Parsley is an underrated herb

I sell seeds of my parsley through my for sale page.  It is not a stable variety, and may produce a few regular size plants.  It will also produce a lot of extra large plants, and a few mammoth plants.  They all taste the same, just prevent the smaller plants from flowering and you will ensure that each year your plants will be large.  If you want to grow a giant parsley that is edible and will impress people, then this is for you.