How to Pollinate Parsley

Parsley grows as a biennial, producing its edible foliage the first year and blooming in the second year. Pollination is required for the aromatic parsley seeds, which are used as a culinary herb, to form. Insects generally handle the pollination of parsley, but natural pollination can lead to cross-pollination between different parsley varieties. To avoid cross-pollination, you must grow parsley under cover during the flowering period, and pollinate the flowers by hand.

Row covers
Paintbrush

Instructions

- 1
  Install row covers over the plants after the first swelling of the flower buds. Use tightly woven, breathable covers that let the plants receive sunlight without overheating. As an alternative, you can bring potted plants indoors or into a greenhouse.
- 2
  Inspect the plants daily for open blooms. Parsley forms small flowers in clusters, called umbels. It's difficult to distinguish male from female flowers because of their small size, so hand pollination is uneven at best.
- 3
  Brush a soft, wide paintbrush over the open flower umbels. The paintbrush will pick up and transfer pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers. Move the brush among umbels and plants of the same parsley variety. Perform this several times during the flowering period for optimum pollination.
- 4
  Inspect the plants after the flowers wilt and fall way. Pollinated parsley plants develop a swollen base that eventually darkens to deep brown or black as the seed matures.

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