Tips on Turnip Growing

[craftymarie]

This is my first time growing turnips so I'd really appreciate any tips on this.

I sowed these back in July and have been growing them in plastic grow bags outdoors. Despite being ravaged by vine weevils, slugs and caterpillars earlier on, they bounced back and now look promising.

1) Do I need to protect these with fleece or a cloche if the weather gets cold or if there is a risk of frost? Or should I move them to the polytunnel?

2) Do they need much water at this time of year bearing in mind they are in individual bags and not in the ground?

3) I've been watering from the water butts - is this OK or should I be using tap water?

Any other tips/advice really welcome.

[Alison]

I grow a few turnips every year as a sumner crop, picking when they're quite small and tender. I don't find that they stand very well and aren't very frost hardy so grow swedes for winter consumption.

[craftymarie]

Thank you, so I need to watch out for frosts.

I grew swede at the same time but have not found those nearly as easy to grow as the turnips for some reason. Less swede germinated and then they have grown very poorly in comparison so I've only got a handful left - shame as I like swede even better. Could just be the variety I guess. Will try different ones next year.

[Tripmeup]

I find turnips to be fairly hardy and grew a few over the autumn/ winter months last year...
I grow quite a few each year....love them with butter and pepper

[craftymarie]

Well, I'm crossing my fingers @tripmeup for a good harvest I'm amazed at how the turnips have bounced back from all the setbacks they've had - between the vine weevils and slugs especially, I thought they were a goner quite a few times. So really hoping they make it to the eating stage.

[Bigmallly]

In my experience, I have found Turnips only need a short amount of growing time - roughly 2 months whilst Swedes need a lot longer to mature.

[Penellype]

I find turnips are like radishes, either they grow fast and well and are nice to eat or they grow slowly and produce thin, tough, hot tasting roots which are most unpleasant. I haven't managed to work out what I do differently when they grow well from when they grow badly. Mine always get cabbage root fly unless I cover them with insect mesh.

[Bigmallly]

Do you grow the same variety Pene? The ones I've grown are Purple Top Milan & have been ok.

[Alison]

Do you grow the same variety Pene? The ones I've grown are Purple Top Milan & have been ok.

I'd agree they're a nice easy type, still don't think they stand very well though and agree with you about them being a quick crop.

[craftymarie]

I never considered cabbage root fly. My turnips haven't been netted at all. I've been inspecting them daily and picking off caterpillars and bugs etc by hand. Just hope they've not been infected already.

[Penellype]

Do you grow the same variety Pene? The ones I've grown are Purple Top Milan & have been ok.

I grow Atlantic (purple topped) regularly in spring, and usually find about half of them are edible, the other half don't swell. This year I started them off in modules in an attempt to avoid slug damage and this seemed to help. I then grew snowball, sown in May again in modules, and got about a tablespoon of edible bits from a dozen plants. Most of the roots were tiny, the ones that weren't were riddled with root fly (I'd just laid a small piece of net over them, which clearly was not big enough.

My latest attempt is a mixture of snowball and purple top milan sown together in July (the milan were old seed and probably haven't germinated) in modules and transplanted into a trough in my veggiemesh cage. The tops look fine, if a little chewed by the beetles that are plaguing my brassicas, but there is absolutely no sign of any swelling of the roots yet. I suspect this will be another failure.