Turnip: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar
How to sow turnips successfully outdoors?
Sow turnips directly outdoors in spring or late summer, according to your variety and climate, avoiding very hot weather. Choose a sunny position and prepare loose, well-drained soil, removing weeds.
Sow thinly in drills about 1 cm deep, with rows about 30 cm apart. Cover the seeds, firm gently and water without soaking the soil. After emergence, thin to about 10 to 15 cm between plants, adjusting the spacing to your variety and the root size you want to harvest.
Keep the seedbed moist and watch for slugs and flea beetles, especially while plants are small. Make small successive sowings if you want to spread out your harvests.
Direct sowing avoids moving the young root you intend to harvest: do not routinely raise plants for transplanting. When thinning, remove surplus seedlings without lifting the ones you want to keep. Insect mesh fitted at sowing can reduce flea beetle damage; secure its edges and check the young leaves as soon as they appear above the soil.
How to care for this plant
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Thin seedlings
Thin turnips only where crowded. Match spacing to the variety and desired root size; baby turnips need less room.
How do you harvest turnips?
Harvest turnips when the roots reach the right size for your variety, while still young and tender. A diameter of about 5 to 7 cm suits many varieties, but some are harvested smaller. Check the top of the root showing above the soil; leaves coming off are not a sign of maturity.
Pull gently to lift the root. If the soil is firm, loosen it with a garden fork positioned away from the turnip to avoid injury. Do not wait for the roots to become very large and woody.
Remove the leaves after harvest and keep the roots cool, for example in the refrigerator vegetable drawer, protecting them from drying out. Use damaged roots promptly and check stored ones regularly.
If you are unsure about size, first lift a representative turnip and check its tenderness in the kitchen before harvesting the whole row. Spread your picking according to the roots' actual development. Handle them without knocking them and separate any cut by your tool from those intended for storage, because wounds reduce their keeping quality.
Turnip
- Type : Vegetables
- Subtype : Root vegetables
- Botanical Family : Brassicaceae (cruciferous)
Characteristics
- Lifecycle : Annual
- Exposure : Full Sun
- Frost Hardiness : Frost Resistant
- Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
- Mature height : 30 cm
Sowing & Planting
- Greenhouse Growing : Not Required
- Sowing Depth : 0.5 cm
- Plant Spacing : 10 cm
- Row Spacing : 20 cm
Maintenance
- Maintenance : Low
- Water Requirements : Moderate
Other characteristics
- Soil Type : Humus-rich
- Soil pH Preference : Neutral
- Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
- Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
- Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
- Pollination : Insect-pollinated
- Propagation : Sowing