Why are my curly parsley plants dying?
Question:
Some of my curly parsley plants are yellowing and dying. This happened two years ago. I lost them all. Dug some up and the roots seemed fine. No bugs of any kind that I can see.
Last year, I changed planting locations and they all did great. This year, some are starting to die again. I just added Coast of Maine Lobster Compost to the soil before planting. I started the seeds in the house.
Any ideas?
Answer:
I’m sorry to hear about the troubles with your parsley–the good news is that most of it looks great.
The damage doesn’t immediately look pest- or pathogen-based to me, and I’m leaning toward environmental factors. The most common cause of parsley problems is over watering, but 1) the fact that your previous parsley roots weren’t mushy or rotten, and 2) your planting location, setup, and (I’m inferring) water regimen, make this less likely. These are planted in-ground and it looks like you do supplemental hand watering along the plants. With the heat of summer and no mulching in the bed, that amount of water isn’t going to last very long without evaporating, so I’m suspecting the dead parsley may just not be getting enough water. Parsley prefers consistently moist, well-drained soil, and what your parsley plants are probably getting is alternating wet-dry soil, and probably different ratios of that in different areas (which is why some look great, others are dead or dying).
Adding compost to the soil is a good idea, so kudos for that. I do worry with all those rocks and surface crust surrounding the planted area that the soil structure isn’t that great, and adding compost each year will work to improve that over time. It doesn’t have to be a lot–1-2″ on top next season, and each season after that, will be fine.
Here are my recommendations:
1) Mulch. A nice, thick layer of about 3″ of shredded wood, shredded bark, straw, etc., does wonders for a garden bed, insulating the soil from evaporative water loss after irrigation, softening the texture, suppressing weeds, and improving the soil over time as it breaks down. You do want to leave a little space around each parsley that isn’t mulched so that you can water the root ball and so you don’t get any rot issues with organic matter right up against the tender plant. See this previous Ask an Expert response for more information.
2) Water well. Water the bed really well before you put the mulch down, and then when you water thereafter, make sure you are really soaking the rootball of each parsley. Quick sprays from the hose to wet everything down leaving for work or the store (which, let’s be honest, we’ve all done!) don’t really penetrate below the top layers of soil and evaporate quickly. The real way to do this easily and effectively is to install a drip irrigation system, but you can consider that down the road, depending on your capacity and interest.
If you start noticing yellow on the leaves, or if the plants look mushy or floppy, cut back on the water–I’m still a little concerned about the drainage of the soil around (and probably under) the immediate planting areas and I don’t want to cause *over* watering problems for you. But I’m hopeful that this new approach will keep the remaining parsley nice and healthy. Please get back to use if the problem persists or if you notice new, different symptoms.
Happy gardening.