Hydroponic parsley together with basil, mint and cilantro is one of the common aromatic herbs you can grow on your kitchen counter using an easy to use hydroponic system.
Parsley is native to the central and eastern Mediterranean region and is mostly used in salads and a vegetable in many soups and stews.
There are 2 common types of parsley: Italian parsley and curly leaf parsley – the most usual is the Italian parsley because of its big leafs.
Hydroponic parsley means growing parsley soiless using water and nutrients, including using the Kratky hydroponic method – a non circulating hydroponic method. Kratky is simple to set up, no pumps, no airstones. Hydroponic parsley is easy to grow but hard to start: it takes 3-4 weeks to germinate and 3-4 weeks to grow true leaves and be ready to place in the hydroponic system. But after this stage it grows quite nicely and can be harvested continuously.
How to grow parsley hydroponically
Tikki O shows us the entire process of growing parsley hydroponically:
- she makes a simple kratky hydroponic system using old coffee containers and netcups (although because they are transparent, some algae will develop over time
- she starts the parsley seeds directly in grodan rockwool cubes (and keeps the cubes in a covered plastic tray to keep the moisture)
- once the seeds have germinated, she moves the seeds under light for 2 more weeks until they are ready to move into the hydroponic system
- as a nutrient solution, Tikki used Foxfarm mix but Masterblend or any other ready make solutions can be used
- placing the plants under a simple fluorescent light is enough, but generally it needs 12-14 hours of good lightning
Commercial hydroponic parsley growing
Of course if you are into more advanced hydroponic systems or want to grow parsley in large quantities, you can use grow towers. Dr. Nate Storey of Bright Agrotech discusses the specifics of what hydroponic growers need to know when growing parsley in their systems, vertical or not. He goes through PH range, lightning, temperatures and other details for the commercial growers:
While parsley is not very demanding, is prone to Aphids, carrot or celery fly larvae, caterpillars and Powdery mildew, leaf spots, root rot
Natural Lapse has a “delicious” 44 days timelapse of parsley:
