Italian Giant Flat Leaf Parsley is one of the most important cut and come again herbs to include in your kitchen herb garden. Incredibly versatile, with a punchier flavour than the curled variety, it produces large flat dark green leaves with a fine, sweet flavour.
- Pack size: 300 seeds
- Time to germination: 10 - 21 days
- When to sow and grow indoors: Year-round
- When to sow outside: March - July
- Spacing: 15cm
- Soil preference: Moist, fertile, well-drained
- Light preference: Full sun, part shade
- When to harvest: Year-round
How to grow Italian Giant Flat Leaf Parsley from seed
Fill a glass with lukewarm water and soak the seeds for an hour before planting. This speeds up the germination process. Sow parsley seeds year-round at a depth of 1cm into coco soil or seed raising compost and keep between 18 and 24 degrees.
Alternatively, direct sow into a pre-prepared bed at the same depth at a spacing of 10-15cms. Germination can be quite slow in cold, damp conditions, and we have the best success starting seeds indoors in pots. Parsley does not transplant well, so use biodegradable pots made from thin-wall coco coir fibre and plant out, pot and all, once 10cm high.
Parsley does not enjoy full sun. Growing inside with a little morning sun is adequate, as is an LED grow light developed for microgreen production. In the kitchen garden, interplant parsley to fill the gaps on the north (shady) side of larger specimens.
Keep your Italian Giant Flat Leaf Parsley plants productive by regular harvesting, and enjoy this wonderful herb.
What to feed your Italian Giant Flat Leaf Parsley
Italian Giant Flat Leaf Parsley is quite a picky customer but will reward those who care. The pot or garden bed's soil should be moist, rich, free draining and at a PH between 5 and 8. Mix an organic compost with organic matter at a rate of 50-50. Blood, fish and bone meal, seaweed granules and volcanic rock dust will give your parsley plants the strength to crop well throughout the year.
Plant your seeds or seedlings out once the risk of frost in your area has passed. A warm, partly sunny location will have your plants growing year-round.
Keeping pests away
Start indoors to minimise the damage caused by slugs and snails during the seedling stage. Parsely is sensitive to transplanting, and we find better success sowing in biodegradable coco coir pots, planting out, pot and all.
Generally, Italian Giant Flat Leaf Parsley is a trouble-free plant to grow; however, ensure adequate air circulation around your plant to minimise chances of fungal infection.