Turnips are root greens within the cabbage household which can be spicy and crunchy when uncooked, and candy and earthy when cooked. Turnips that mature in cool climate are the sweetest of all, however this crop might be grown for each spring and fall harvest. If you wish to develop turnips in your backyard, right here is every little thing you’ll want to know.
You may also obtain my How Do I Develop Turnips? one-sheet and preserve the free useful resource helpful in your reference.
Turnips are of the species Brassica rapa, which additionally consists of broccoli rabe, napa cabbage and bok choy. Like all Brassicas, turnips are cold-hardy. Beneath inexperienced foliage, turnip taproots are white, purple, crimson or bi-color.
Turnips might be served uncooked in a salad or with dip, and there are such a lot of methods to cook dinner turnip roots. They are often roasted, boiled or pickled. Mashed turnips might be loved alone or blended with mashed potatoes. Steamed younger turnips are tender and candy. Along with cooking the roots, you’ll be able to saute the turnip greens to get much more out of your harvest.

Turnips belong to the species Brassica rapa, which additionally consists of broccoli rabe, napa cabbage and bok choy.
The place, When & Find out how to Plant Turnips
Turnips require full solar and fertile soil to achieve their full potential. Choose a spot that receives six to eight hours of direct daylight each day, at a minimal, and amend the soil with loads of compost. Compost will enhance soil fertility whereas additionally serving to sandy soil to carry moisture and clay soil to empty readily.
Turnips will develop their largest in free soil. Flip the soil to a depth of eight inches and take away any rocks that would impede the expansion of the turnips.

When direct sowing seeds, label the rows by vegetable kind and selection. You’ll be glad you probably did.
The soil pH ought to be someplace between 6.0 and seven.5, which is barely acidic to barely alkaline. A soil check will let you recognize the pH stage and methods to alter it, if obligatory.
Use pathogen-free seed from a trusted supply. Turnip seed can stay viable for 4 or 5 years if saved in best situations.
As root greens, turnips don’t take effectively to being transplanted. Direct sow seeds within the backyard three weeks earlier than the final frost date in your space for a spring harvest. For a staggered fall harvest, sow seeds each week or two right into a deeply watered backyard mattress over the past two weeks of August and all through the month of September.
Sow one seed per 2 inches in rows 18 inches aside, to account for the highest progress. As soon as seedlings develop to a few inches tall, skinny the crops to 1 each 4 to six inches to permit them to develop to their full potential.
Turnips seeds can germinate in soil that’s as cool as 40°F, however the optimum soil temperature for turnip germination is between 60° and 105°. You’ll be able to examine the temperature with a reasonable soil thermometer. Within the optimum vary, the seeds ought to sprout in 4 to seven days.

As soon as turnip seedlings develop to a few inches tall, skinny the crops to 1 each 4 to six inches to permit them to develop to their full potential.
Turnip Varieties
When deciding what sorts of turnips to develop in your backyard, take into account that are suited to your native rising situations and whether or not your precedence is turnip roots or turnip greens. In order for you roots however are rising a spread that was bred to supply ample greens, you might be disillusioned.
Alamo is a spread that’s grown for its greens. The child leaves will regrow for a number of harvests. Alamo tolerates aphids and mosaic virus and has average bolt resistance. Leaves might be harvested in as quickly as 33 days.
Amelie is a bolt-resistant hybrid turnip with candy and crisp white roots that develop 2 to three inches in diameter. The tops will also be harvested. Amelie might be sown for spring or fall harvest. It matures in 50 to 80 days.
Hakurei is a hybrid turnip with white roots that mature in simply 38 days. Each the roots and the tops could also be eaten uncooked.
Simply Proper is a hybrid all-white, semi-globe massive turnip supposed for fall or winter harvest. It’s liable to bolting so it shouldn’t be sown within the spring. It matures in 70 days.
Nagasaki Akari Kabu is a purple turnip that originated in Japan. The roots are supposed for consuming contemporary or pickled. This selection is able to harvest in 50 days.
Purple High White Globe is a conventional American turnip and in style within the Southern United States particularly. The taproots develop white beneath the soil and purple above. Harvest at 3 to 4 inches in diameter. The leaves are additionally good for cooking. It matures in 50 days.

There are a number of totally different sorts of turnip that develop white beneath the soil line and purple above it.(Photograph Credit score: Amy Prentice)
Royal Crown is a hybrid turnip with candy and gentle roots that retain their high quality as much as 4 inches in measurement. It may be grown in spring or fall and used for its greens or its roots. It matures in 50 days.
Scarlet Queen is a crimson turnip supposed for salad. Harvest when the taproots are 2 to three inches in diameter. It matures in 43 days.
White Woman is a hybrid turnip that’s good for spring or fall crops as a result of it matures in simply 35 days. The white roots are crisp and candy.

Some turnip varieties have putting colours and patterns inside. (Photograph Credit score: Amy Prentice)
Watering Turnips
Turnips will germinate greatest in deeply watered soil. When rising, the roots want constant moisture. Apply 1 inch of water per week if Mom Nature hasn’t executed the job for you. In very sandy, fast-draining soil, apply as much as 2 inches of water per week. A drip irrigation system works nice for turnips to make sure the bottom by no means fully dries whereas the roots are growing.
Fertilizing Turnips
You’ll be able to broadcast fertilizer over the planting mattress earlier than sowing turnips, however in case you are amending with compost, fertilizer ought to be pointless at that stage. The time to side-dress with a low-nitrogen or balanced fertilizer is as soon as the turnip seedlings have placed on their first true leaves.
If you’re rising turnips for the roots, keep away from ever utilizing a high-nitrogen fertilizer. The jolt of nitrogen could cause the highest to develop vigorously on the expense of the taproot. Search for a granular natural vegetable fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 5-10-10 or so. NPK stands for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and the N quantity ought to be equal to or lower than the following two numbers.
In case you solely intend to reap the greens and never the roots, then you’ll be able to confidently use a nitrogen-rich liquid natural fertilizer equivalent to fish emulsion, however sparingly. At all times comply with the producer’s directions. Extra fertilizer doesn’t equal higher, and an excessive amount of might be detrimental.

If rising turnips for the greens somewhat than the roots, you need to use nitrogen fertilizer extra freely.
Turnip Pests & Ailments
To keep away from many turnip pest points and to stop illnesses unfold by these pests, apply floating row cowl over your turnips at planting time. Row cowl is a bodily barrier that may permit mild and water by way of whereas stopping pests from touchdown in your turnips and laying their eggs.
Armyworms are moth larvae which have a style for turnip greens. Handpick eggs earlier than they will hatch and take away the caterpillars, which can be inexperienced or black and grey. Bt is an natural management for moth and butterfly larvae that’s secure round people and pets and won’t hurt different wildlife.
Cabbage aphids are sap-sucking bugs that assault the turnip foliage. They’re small and grey, however when their inhabitants proliferates, they will stunt or kill a turnip plant. Aphids are additionally vectors of turnip illnesses, equivalent to mosaic virus. Preserve aphids off turnips with row cowl. In case you do discover aphids in your crops, management them with a pointy blast of water. As soon as they’re knocked down this fashion, they received’t have the ability to get again on the crops. Woman beetles, inexperienced lacewings and syrphid flies are all helpful bugs that prey on aphids. Chorus from utilizing pesticides that may kill these helpful predators.
Cabbage root maggots are fly larvae. Affected crops will wilt and have stunted progress. Put row cowl in place earlier than the flies have the chance to put their eggs. Paper collars may also shield turnips from root maggot injury.
Cabbage worms are moth larvae that may eat turnip greens. They are often handpicked or managed with Bt. Putting in row cowl early can cease cabbage worms from ever turning into an issue.
Flea beetles are chewing bugs. They’re tiny black or bronze leaping leaf beetles, simply an eighth of an inch lengthy. Floating row cowl can preserve flea beetles at bay. One other technique is to plant a lure crop of radishes, which flea beetles want over turnips.
Slugs and snails take pleasure in turnip greens. Slugs and snails might be handpicked, although it may be laborious to identify all of them. For a extreme infestation, a bait like Sluggo, which incorporates iron phosphate, is a secure, natural choice.

Slugs might be managed with a bait that incorporates iron phosphate, a secure, natural choice.
Wireworms are click on beetle larvae that may spend between one and 6 years in soil earlier than they emerge as adults. They’re between a half-inch and three inches lengthy and might kill turnip seedlings and injury crops which can be additional alongside of their improvement. In case you suspect your backyard has a wireworm concern, put a potato piece 4 inches deep within the soil and mark it. After per week, dig up the potato and examine it for wireworms. You’ll be able to’t do something about wireworms as turnips are rising, however within the weeks previous to planting time, you’ll be able to flip the soil a number of instances to show the wireworms to birds.
Turnips might be affected by varied plant illnesses, together with mosaic virus, black rot, downy mildew, Alternaria black spot, and turnip crinkle virus, to call a number of. Apart from protecting pathogen-transmitting pests off crops, the most effective prevention for turnip illnesses is crop rotation. In case you plant Brassicas in the identical spot for a number of years, Brassica pathogens will construct up within the soil. As an alternative, wait 4 years earlier than planting cabbage household crops in the identical spot once more.

You’ll be able to’t do something about wireworms as turnips are rising, however within the weeks previous to planting time, you’ll be able to flip the soil a number of instances to show the wireworms to birds.
Harvesting Turnips
In case you plan to reap turnip greens, start chopping leaves as soon as they’re 6 inches lengthy. The longer they’re left develop, the extra bitter the greens will probably be. Depart an inch behind, and the greens will develop again, giving a number of harvests from the identical plant. As soon as the crops have bolted (gone to seed) the leaves will probably be fairly bitter and unappetizing.
As a result of the highest of the turnip root pops out of the soil, you’ll be able to simply gauge how massive a turnip is. Most varieties will probably be prepared to reap when the diameter has reached 2 to 4 inches. Take note of the dimensions at maturity for the particular varieties that you’re rising. In case you depart a turnip within the floor for too lengthy, it might develop bigger however it should additionally lose its taste and change into pithy. It’s higher to reap roots early somewhat than late.
To reap a turnip, seize it by the foliage firmly the place the stem is connected to the basis and pull up whereas twisting. For much less resistance, water the turnip mattress deeply a day previous to harvesting; proper earlier than harvesting, loosen the encompassing soil with a trowel.
Within the spring, don’t delay harvesting. You’ll need all of them out of the bottom earlier than the arrival summer season warmth stimulates bolting. Within the fall, there’s extra flexibility. Turnips which have skilled a number of touches of frost will probably be sweeter because the chilly causes the starches within the taproot to show to sugars, so there’s an incentive to depart them within the floor previous their maturity date so long as that selection just isn’t liable to turning into pithy.
Turnips ought to be harvested earlier than the bottom freezes, however you’ll be able to delay freezing with an utility of two inches of free natural mulch equivalent to shredded leaves or straw. In case you dwell in an space the place the bottom doesn’t freeze, you need to use your backyard as your fridge and pull up turnips all winter.
To retailer turnip roots, lower off all however a half-inch of the foliage on the high and lower off the skinny a part of the basis on the backside. Retailer them within the crisper drawer of your fridge for as much as two weeks. They will also be canned with a stress canner. If consuming the greens, place them in a bowl of cool water and agitate them to get the dust off. Get pleasure from them instantly or shake off the water and retailer them in zip-lock luggage within the fridge.

To reap a turnip, seize it by the foliage firmly the place the stem is connected to the basis and pull up whereas twisting.
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Hyperlinks & Assets
Some product hyperlinks on this information are affiliate hyperlinks. See full disclosure beneath.
Episode 022: The 12 months-round Vegetable Gardener with Niki Jabbour
Episode 99: Understanding Crop Rotation: The Fundamentals and Past, with Jack Algiere
Episode 122: Fall Vegetable Backyard Success: Finest Crops and Ideas for Cool-Season Rising
Episode 195: Figuring out and Controlling Backyard Pests Organically
Episode 220: Fall Succession Planning and Planting Ideas, with Meg Cowden
joegardener weblog: Powdery Mildew Prevention & Management
joegardener weblog: What to Plant in a Fall Vegetable Backyard
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joegardener weblog: How Do I Develop Swiss Chard?
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joegardener weblog: How Do I Develop Winter Squash?
How Do I Develop Turnips? one-sheet
joegardenerTV YouTube: Find out how to Defend Cool-Season Crops in Sizzling Climate
joegardenerTV YouTube: Straightforward Edibles for Each Fall Vegetable Backyard
joegardener On-line Gardening Academy™: Three in style programs on gardening fundamentals; managing pests, illnesses & weeds; and seed beginning!
joegardener On-line Gardening Academy Starting Gardener Fundamentals: Important ideas to know to create a thriving backyard.
joegardener On-line Gardening Academy Excellent Soil Recipe Grasp Class: Discover ways to create the proper soil setting for thriving crops.
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