As with broccoli, cabbage, and different brassicas, turnips are a fast and straightforward root vegetable to develop. Individuals usually consider turnips as bland and boring, however this previous crop is turning into well-liked once more, particularly in residence gardens.
You may decide from a variety of completely different sorts of turnips which are completely different coloured and sized. There are white, yellow, inexperienced, and purple turnips. Some develop to be the scale of a golf ball, whereas others are greatest picked when they’re concerning the measurement of a tennis ball.
Round Australia, turnips might be grown in any climate. When you stay someplace chilly, plant them between August and March. When you stay someplace hotter, plant them in late summer time, fall, and even early spring to keep away from the most well liked elements of summer time. Relying on the sort, you’ll be able to harvest turnips wherever from 5 to 12 weeks after rising them. You may eat each the basis and the leaves.
You may cook dinner younger turnip leaves such as you would child spinach. For longer cooking, chop up older leaves and add them to soups or stews. You may steam, roast, or eat turnip roots uncooked, or you’ll be able to add them to soups and stews.
What’S The Distinction Between A Turnip And A Rutabaga?
To inform them other than rutabaga, turnips are sometimes referred to as “summer time turnips.” If you reduce them open, the within is mostly white. The within of rutabagas, however, is extra yellow, they usually are typically larger. They’re also called winter turnips typically. Like cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and different Brassica greens, they each style type of the identical.
Turnip Varieties
When selecting which varieties of turnips to develop in your yard, it’s best to take into consideration which of them will do greatest in your space and whether or not you need turnip greens or roots. You may not get the roots you need when you develop a kind of plant that was designed to offer you plenty of greens.
Alamo
Alamo is a kind that’s grown for its leaves. Child leaves will develop again and be used for multiple crop. Alamo can deal with aphids and mosaic virus, and it’s not too immune to bolts. In as little as 33 days, you’ll be able to decide the leaves.
Amelie
Amelie is a mutant turnip that doesn’t bolt. Its roots are candy and crisp white and develop to be 2 to three inches throughout. You too can decide the tops. You may plant Amelie to assemble within the spring or fall. In 50 to 80 days, it’s able to eat.
Hakurei
Hakurei is a mutant turnip that grows in 38 days and has white roots. You may eat the seeds and the tops uncooked.
You may collect Simply Proper, a hybrid all-white, half-globe-shaped massive turnip, within the fall or winter. It tends to bolt, so that you shouldn’t plant it within the spring. In 70 days, it will likely be prepared.
Nagasaki Akari Kabu
Nagasaki Akari Kabu is a purple turnip that comes from Japan. Individuals eat the roots both recent or cooked. In 50 days, this kind will likely be prepared to choose.
You could find the basic American turnip Purple High White Globe in massive numbers within the southern United States. The roots are purple on high and white under the bottom. Decide them when they’re 3 to 4 inches throughout. You may cook dinner with the leaves too. In 50 days, it will likely be prepared.
There are candy and gentle roots on the Royal Crown hybrid turnip that keep good as much as 4 inches in measurement. You may develop it within the spring or fall and eat the leaves or the seeds. In 50 days, it will likely be prepared.
Scarlet Queen
The scarlet queen is a kind of pink turnip that’s utilized in salads. When the taproots are 2 to three inches throughout, they’re able to be picked. In 43 days, it will likely be prepared.
White Girl
White Girl is a mutant turnip that grows in 35 days and is sweet for spring or fall crops. The white roots are candy and crisp.
When To Plant Turnips
Plant turnip seeds about two to a few weeks earlier than the final spring frost date for a late spring crop.
If you wish to collect turnips within the fall, plant them in late summer time, after you’ve grown onions, squash, beans, or candy corn.
Plant seeds early within the fall for a later yield within the fall.
How To Plant Turnips
- Add an excellent low-organic fertilizer (like a 5-5-5) to the grime about 12 inches deep earlier than you plant. When you use an excessive amount of nitrogen in your fertilizer, your vegetation will get leafy greens as a substitute of huge roots. Don’t use vitamins which are excessive in nitrogen.
- Unfold the seeds out in rows 12 to 18 inches aside, ¼ to ½ of an inch deep within the grime.
- You too can unfold turnip seeds out and later skinny the vegetation.
- No more than ½ inch of grime ought to be put over the seeds.
- Make sure to water often and properly.
- Cowl the rows while you plant your spring veggies to maintain pests away.
Rising
- When the vegetation are 4 inches tall, area them out in order that they’re 4 to six inches aside. Crowding could make roots small or misshapen. They gained’t develop when you put them nearer than 4 inches.
- Take care to not pull weeds from the beds, however don’t contact the roots of younger turnips.
- Use a variety of mulch to maintain the soil moist and preserve weeds from rising.
- Turnips don’t want a lot care, but it surely’s necessary to maintain the grime moist. Water usually sufficient to maintain the grime simply barely damp; one inch of water per week ought to preserve the roots from drying out.
How To Keep away from Bolting
Our turnips are hardy biennials, however they actually develop each two years. The second 12 months, they flower on their very own and go to seed. Of their first 12 months, they could bolt, which suggests they flower and set seeds early, if they’re burdened by warmth or chilly or a scarcity of vitamins or water. Stress like this may additionally trigger roots to develop slowly or in no way, roots to type above floor, or greens solely.
Don’t let the turnips bolt when you decide them earlier than the temperature hits the 80s (F).
Fertilizing Turnips
Earlier than planting turnips, you’ll be able to unfold fertilizer over the mattress, however if you’re amending it with waste first, you shouldn’t want to make use of fertilizer at that time. As soon as the turnip vegetation have their first true leaves, you’ll be able to add a side-dressing of a low-nitrogen or balanced fertilizer.
By no means use a high-nitrogen fertilizer on turnips that you’re rising for his or her roots. The nitrogen shock could make the highest develop rapidly, however the taproot could not get sufficient meals. Discover an natural powder plant meals that has an NPK steadiness of about 5-10-10. What does NPK stand for? It stands for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The N quantity ought to be the identical as or lower than the following two numbers.
You need to use a nitrogen-rich liquid natural fertilizer like fish emulsion, however solely a small quantity, when you solely need to collect the greens and never the roots. All the time comply with the instructions that got here with the product. There isn’t a such factor as an excessive amount of manure; actually, an excessive amount of might be unhealthy.
Harvesting
- When turnips are small, decide the greens. The leaves style greatest when they’re nonetheless younger and mushy. When you reduce the leaves off 2 inches above the bottom, they may come again. As you develop them for roots, solely take a number of at a time.
- You may harvest roots at any time, however turnips which are nonetheless small and younger are greatest. Sometimes, early sorts are picked after 5 weeks. After 6 to 10 weeks, the primary varieties of crops will likely be prepared.
- If you would like sweeter fall turnips, you would possibly need to decide them after one or two mild frosts however earlier than a tough freeze.
- You may collect later within the season and preserve your vegetation protected from a tough freeze when you mulch them.
Turnip Pests & Ailments
Placing floating row cowl over your turnips while you plant them will preserve many pests away and cease the illnesses that the pests unfold. Pests gained’t be capable of land in your turnips and lay their eggs as a result of row cowl is a bodily barrier that lets mild and water by means of.
Armyworms
Armyworms are younger moths that prefer to eat turnip greens. Take the caterpillars out of the eggs by hand earlier than they hatch. The caterpillars might be inexperienced or black and grey. When used on moth and butterfly eggs, Bt is an natural strategy to eliminate them that’s protected for individuals, pets, and different animals.
Cabbage Aphids
Cabbage aphids are bugs that feed on sap and assault the leaves of turnips. They’re grey and small, but when they get too many, they will gradual or kill a turnip plant. Aphids may unfold illnesses to turnips, just like the mosaic virus. Use a row cowl to maintain bugs off of turnips. Aphids which are in your vegetation ought to be killed with a powerful blast of water.
They gained’t be capable of get again on the vegetation after being knocked down this fashion. Aphids are eaten by woman beetles, inexperienced lacewings, and syrphid flies, all of that are good bugs. Don’t use chemical substances that can kill these good bugs that eat pests.
Cabbage Root Maggots
Cabbage root maggots are younger flies. Crops which are uncovered will wilt and develop slowly. Row cowl must be put in place earlier than the flies can lay their eggs. Turnips will also be stored protected from root maggot harm with paper bands.
Cabbage Worms
Cabbage worms are younger moths that prefer to eat turnip greens. You may select them by hand or use Bt to manage them. When you put down row covers early on, cabbage worms won’t ever be an issue.
Flea Beetles
Flea beetles are bugs that prefer to chew. They’re very small leaping leaf beetles, about eight tenths of an inch lengthy and black or bronze. They are often stored away with floating row cowl. You may additionally develop radishes as a lure crop, since flea bugs like them higher than turnips.
Slugs And Snails
Slugs and snails like turnip greens. Some slugs and snails are simple to identify, however they are often picked out by hand. A bait like Sluggo, which has iron phosphate in it, is a protected and pure strategy to eliminate a severe infestation.
Grownup Click on Beetles
Grownup click on beetles can stay for as much as six years within the floor earlier than they arrive out as wireworms. Longer vegetation might be killed by them, however shorter vegetation can nonetheless be harm. They’re about half an inch to a few inches lengthy.
Put a potato slice 4 inches deep within the floor and mark it when you suppose wireworms are in your yard. After per week, dig the potato up and look inside to see if there are any wireworms. You may’t do something about wireworms whereas turnips are rising, however you’ll be able to flip the grime a number of occasions within the weeks earlier than planting to let birds discover the wireworms.
There are numerous plant illnesses that may harm turnips. A few of them are mosaic virus, black rot, downy mildew, Alternaria black spot, and turnip crinkle virus.
Apart from holding pests that unfold illnesses away from vegetation, crop rotation is one of the best ways to maintain turnips from getting sick. Brassica pathogens will construct up within the soil when you put them in the identical place for a number of years. As a substitute, don’t plant cabbage household crops in the identical place for 4 years.