4 reasons why your parsley turns yellow

Parsley is one of the most popular garden herbs in the kitchen. It is a biennial herb, so you can enjoy it for two years! In the second year, it blooms around June. You can easily grow it in a pot on the windowsill so it is always close at hand. Just pluck a few leaves from them to garnish your dishes and add a green touch. It's all fun and games until your fresh leaves turn a yellow colour.

We list some possible culprits:

🌿 Aphids

Aphids bring a virus that causes yellow to purple leaves. These little parasites often hide between the jagged leaves of curled parsley so that you do not readily notice them. Often, it is already too late before you can take action. These insects are mainly active during the summer months.

🌿 Carrot fly

This brings us to the second and perhaps most important cause of the discolouration: the carrot fly. The voraciousness of the maggots can do a lot of damage to the parsley. The leaves will first wither and the plant will eventually die.

Tip from Marcel: Do you grow a lot of parsley? Then use insect netting (like with the cabbages) to avoid the above problems! It not only protects your herbs from all sorts of intruders, but also provides a little extra shade.

🌿 Drought

It should come as no surprise: the extreme dryness and heat does your parsley no favours either. Give the parsley some shade to cool down, and do not leave it in the full sun. Parsley does not like extremely wet or dry soil. Water it in time, but in moderation and certainly not every day.

🌿 Lack of food/earth

Parsley turns yellow faster when grown in a pot. The reason for this is simple: often a pot is too small or the pot in which the parsley was sold is used.
We recommend using a pot of at least 25 cm in diameter and height if you want to grow parsley in a pot and keep it fresh for a long time. At the bottom of the pot, you must provide holes so that excess water can drain away. Also use a good quality potting soil that retains the water. Are your pots rather small and do you have no room to place larger ones? You may want to add some Terracotta to hold the water better.

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