I've sometimes had to summer plant parsley. I just soak them overnight, sow and keep watered. They are very slow to germinate.

Well, the reason I ask is that there is no evidence that 24 hours of stratification does ANYTHING AT ALL. I'm thinking the "overnight in fridge" is sort of pretend stratification. Stratification is a gradual chemical process to stop dormancy. It's not about an "Oh, it's winter!" sudden realization.

My Dad (a former Editor of Horticulture magazine) introduced me to an effortless, old-time parsley sprouting method.

1. In the fall prepare the soil area where you wish to grow parsley. Place a fairly tall stake in the center of that area as a marker.

2. Twiddle those anxious green fingers until winter days show promise of ending. Then, toss your parsley seeds around the stake on top of the melting snow of what you think might be the last snow storm of the winter. There may be more unexpected snow, but that does not matter.

Be prepared on a future warm spring day to be greeted with very healthy parsley seedlings. At this time you may thin or transplant them as desired.

That's just about doing natural scarification of the seeds. You leave the seeds on the moist ground long enough, and the seed coat will break down. That's what I do routinely with Malabar spinach. But I want parsley NOW (or as close to NOW as possible). Germination time for parsley is long, at least partly because of the need for natural scarification. Soaking helps with that, greatly softening the seed coat.

Scarification is the deliberate damaging of a seed coat to allow water in. Leaving seed out over winter is stratification ie exposing the seed to cold and moisture.

Very fresh parsley seed actually germinates quite quickly. It doesn't like transplanting although I find it starts best in small modules away from snails and slugs but needs transplanting very quickly.

That's what I said. Natural scarification is where exposure to the elements (softening by water, abrasion by soil) damages the seed coat, allowing water penetration. If you plant in moist soil and wait long enough, that's what happens deliberately. In my experience, parsley never germinates quickly. I think 2-4 weeks is the norm. That, however, is without soaking. I'll try soaking this time. This business of short stratification is probably worthless.

If you want parsley NOW, your local nursery probably has small pots of it available -- it seems to always be available here at the good nurseries, even in the north (where we just grow it on the windowsill)

My local nursery doesn't have the variety of parsley that I want. When a vegetable gardener says he or she wants stuff NOW, they have a concept of the process of seeding and germination. That's what I meant by "as close to NOW as possible". I'm saying that I don't want to wait for months of natural scarification or refrigerator stratification. Even 2-4 weeks for germination is sort of a long time, though.

Well, I do summer starts in my converted garage, where the temperature is up near 90F. Now that I have fresh seeds, and after soaking them for a few days, I'm hoping for less than 2 weeks!

2 weeks is fairly quick for me as well. I've never chilled soaked seeds, but I do always soak overnight.

This is reminding me I need to get started on my parsley too - and I need new seeds, I think. I love flat leaf parsley and use it a lot.