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When to plant Parsnip

Computed from land-grant Extension planting-window rules (cited below), localized to real ZIP-level median frost dates, not a single national guess. These are national-generic rules by hardiness class; individual state Extension offices layer their own regional adjustment on top (earlier in the Deep South, later in the Upper Midwest). Enter your ZIP for your own dates, or read the four representative locations below.

Planting windows and crop timing here are computed from USDA/NOAA climate data and the university extension sources cited below, not a site visit or soil test. Treat this as a starting point: local conditions vary, and a local nursery or extension office can advise on your exact site. See our full Disclaimer.

Representative timing, by climate band

When to plant Parsnip in four US climates

Each column is the most nursery-dense location in our directory within that USDA zone band, computed from that location's own real median frost dates, not a made-up example.

Stage Zones 1-5 (cold winters)
Fort Plain, NY 		Zones 6-7 (temperate)
McMinnville, TN 		Zones 8-9 (warm)
Apopka, FL 		Zones 10-13 (hot, frost rare or absent)
Loxahatchee, FL
Start seed indoors Not available Not available Not available –
Direct-sow outside Apr 8–May 6 Mar 10–Apr 7 Jan 27–Feb 24 –
Transplant outside Not available Not available Not available –
Fall planting Not available Not available Not available –
Expected harvest Jun 17–Oct 3 May 19–Sep 4 Apr 7–Jul 24 –

Zones 10-13 (hot, frost rare or absent) (Loxahatchee, FL): Frost is rare here (about 359 frost-free days a year); most years see little or no hard freeze. This is a semi hardy crop. In climates like this one, hardy and semi-hardy crops typically go in during the cooler months (fall through late winter), not on a frost-relative schedule.

Parsnip goes into the ground anywhere from four weeks before your last frost to right at it. Colorado State University Extension's semi-hardy rule (Fact Sheet 7.212) gives zero to two weeks before frost; Purdue Extension (HO-186-W) gives two to four weeks before for the same tier. This page publishes the combined four-to-zero-week window rather than picking one.

Soil should read 35°F at seeding, a figure Colorado State and Purdue agree on exactly. Days to maturity are a genuine three-way disagreement rather than a rounding difference: Colorado State says 70 days, NC State says 100 to 130, and Missouri Extension says 150, more than double Colorado State's figure. This page reports the full 70-to-150 range as published, but Colorado State's 70 days reads atypically fast for a crop most sources describe as slow-maturing; if a single working number is needed, 100 to 130 is the more representative middle of the three.

Given how slow parsnip generally runs, a cold-winter climate benefits from the earliest end of the direct-sow window, since a long season is exactly what a 100-to-150-day root crop needs before the ground freezes; a mild-winter climate has more slack and can seed later without losing the harvest.

Parsnip is seed-only at the nursery, sold as seed rather than as transplants, the same as its close relative carrot.

Frost hardiness

Semi-hardy. Tolerates light frost. Best planted close to the last frost date.

Minimum soil temperature

35°F

For direct sowing/germination, where an Extension source stated it.

Days to maturity

70–150

Sourcing notes

CSU's semi-hardy window (0-2wk before) and PURDUE's (2-4wk before) unioned and flagged, as with carrots/beets. CSU and PURDUE soil-temp minimums agree exactly at 35F. DTM is a genuine three-way disagreement: CSU says 70 days, NCSU says 100-130, MOEXT says 150 - a >2x spread. Reported the full 70-150 range but flag that CSU's 70 looks atypically fast for a crop most sources describe as slow-maturing; treat 100-130 as the more representative middle estimate if a single number is needed.

Related crops

Growing zones for this crop

Nurseries near these locations

Sources