0tterbot wrote:
i have parsley (both curly & italian) which self-seeds about the
place (i'm too lazy to grow it in an organised manner, and also i
find it really hard to germinate whereas it germinates wonderfully if
just left to do its thing).


I do the same. Except when a WWOOFer weeded all the seedlings :-(

lately i have noticed that the curly parsley has almost entirely lost
its curl and is paler than it used to be! it doesn't quite look like
italian parsley, but it's really not tightly curly & dark like it
should be. it looks like a small version of italian.


How does it taste?

do we think it is:
1: cross pollination (i don't recall them ever flowering
simultaneously, but who knows)

My guess is that is quite possible.

2: just the current curlies growing a bit straighter because of some
sort of weather thing & next time round they'll be curly again.

Can't rule it out

3: lack of selection on my part ( i just let all of them go to seed,
good or bad, as a general rule) so it's reverting to some sort of
ancestral type (??? i have no idea if this is even likely).

Seem unlikely to me as I don't think parsley is highly selected and
conserved seed

4: a weird side effect of the occasional razing by (presumably)
rabbits

Why would cropping by rabbits do anything that cropping by cooks doesn't?


any thoughts?
kylie
p.s. i used to live across the street from someone whose curly
parsley was knee-high & fabulously lush. wow! my parsley never looks
like that even if it's not gone straight.

L iberal nitrogen fertiliser and water.

David