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Growing Turnips - How to Grow Turnips

Turnip cvr Snowball

Turnip - Brassica Napus

The large woody turnips of old have mainly been replaced now with modern hybrid varieties and smaller Japanese white varieties that are delicious grated raw into a salad or as a welcome side dish, leaving the swedes to take over in the stew department.

Although it is nothing like a cabbage turnips are a member of the brassica family so club root will be a problem if you have this on your plot.

They are a fast crop, being ready in just five to eight weeks from sowing to harvesting at the size of a golf ball or a little larger. As they grow on they become less tender and flavoursome so successional sowing every two ensures a constant supply of young and sweet turnips can be provided.

Cultivating Turnips

Because they are faster growing than swedes, they require a higher level of fertility. Ideally the soil should have been manured for a previous crop and the pH level should be around neutral. Like most brassicas they do not like an acid soil. A week or so before sowing provide 50 to 75 grams of general purpose fertiliser like fish, blood & bone or Growmore for best results.

Sow thinly in situ 1-2cm deep and thin to around 10-15cm apart either in rows spaced at 30cm or 15cm equidistant in raised beds.

Sowing can start as early as late February under cloche and run through to August. Maincrop varieties that are sown in July and August require a larger spacing, 25cm, to allow the larger root to develop for harvesting in November and December. Since the maincrop turnip is arguably less well flavoured and is inferior in minerals and vitamins to the swede, you may feel it only worthwhile to grow early turnips

Turnips are a relatively trouble free crop, cultivation is mainly a matter of keeping them weed free and watering in dry periods to avoid woody texture and split skins. Because they are so fast growing, it is important to start thinning as soon as possible. If they are allowed to crowd, decent roots will not develop.

Turnip Pests & Problems

Apart from clubroot, turnips can be troubled by the cabbage root fly. If this is a problem on your site, use horticultural fleece to keep the pest off until the crop is well established. They can suffer with flea beetle and powdery mildew, especially if overcrowded.

Culinary Uses Of Turnips

Turnip tops can be used as a green vegetable and very young leaves can be used in a salad. Young, golf ball sized, turnips can be grated and eaten raw in salads although some people find raw turnip indigestible.

The smaller bulbs of early varieties can be boiled whole for around 25 - 30 minutes. Maincrop varieties will require thickly peeling and cubing before boiling, treat as swedes. There's a list of recipes using turnips as the main ingredient on this site.

Recommended Varieties of Turnip to Grow

Early Turnips

Turnip Purple Top Milan has distinctive flat-topped roots, white with purple crown. Quick maturing, useful in frames and under cloches. Popular in Northern areas. Recommended by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. Available from Suttons Seeds

Turnip Tokyo Cross F1 has delicious pure white roots, perfect at golf ball size or slightly smaller. These are a 'mini veg' designed for close spacing - recommended is rows 15cm apart spaced at just 2.5cm Has won the RHS Award of Garden Merit Available from Dobies

Turnip Snowball is a first-class white, globe turnip. Early, juicy and sweet flavoured, will yield a good supply from early summer to early winter, and the tops make most nutritious and tasty 'greens Available from Thompson & Morgan

Maincrop Turnips

Turnip Golden Ball The best known and despite being an old variety it is still considered by many to be the best maincrop with tender flesh and good keeping qualities. Available from Dobies and from Suttons Seeds

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