In this article, I’m going to show you how to grow turnips. Turnips are a cool-weather vegetable best harvested before temperatures exceed 75°F. They don’t take up a lot of space and their harvesting period is quite long and they only take around ten weeks to grow. Also, I’ll be covering everything you need to know on how to grow Turnips from seed to harvest so let’s get started.
3 Easy steps to grow turnips
1. To grow turnips start with Sowing
I’m gonna be sowing my turnips in cell trays, I find it’s easier for transplanting later and I can grow a larger amount in a smaller space.
I also make my own mix which is 50/50 compost and topsoil. The topsoil holds on to moisture whereas the compost has lots of nutrients.
Spread it over a cell tray and poking it down into the holes don’t press it down too thoroughly though as the seedlings have a better time growing if it’s left a little fluffy.
While you’re pressing down gently if there are any air holes just top it up with a little more of the mix.
Now we want to make sure this tray is nice and moist and damp which will help the seedlings to germinate and also means that we need to water less later.
There are two ways of doing this the first is to chuck it in a big tray and fill some water that will then saturate over about ten to fifteen minutes. The easiest way in which we’ll all probably do is just water the tray a few times.
These are the turnips I’m growing. The Milan purple-top very tasty and they’re quick to grow.
Also got a couple of labels so I can remember what’s where. Also, all my labels have got the number 19 that’s the week of the year that they’ve sown. I find it easier to work out how long they’ve been growing if I use a number rather than a date.
So I’m going to be sowing around four to five seeds per cell and these are gonna be multi sown so I’m not gonna thin them later.
The benefit of multi-sowing is that you can grow more in one space and once you harvest the larger roots it then gives more space for the smaller ones to then grow in establish. It extends the harvesting period
Okay, I’m just gonna sow four to five in each cell there and then I’m gonna cover with a little bit of soil and gently press that down.
You should notice as you press it down that the soil underneath is damp we know then that it’s fully saturated. Give it another water as well it’s going to feel like you’re watering too much but this will really give them a kickstart.
Also read When is it best to water plants? [4 tips to master watering]
I chopped them in a grow house but hot windowsill will be fine or a cold frame.
Now that all happened in week one.
2. Growing Turnips
Week 2: Turnip Seed Germination
Turnips germinate in about two weeks and a small turnip plant becomes visible. Coming back at the start of week two you can see that they’ve already germinated and we can see easily two or three per cell.
Week 3: It is starting to become Leggy
At the start of week three, we can see it is starting to become a little leggy.
As they’re stretching for the light so what I’m gonna do I’m gonna keep turning this tray every few days I’m gonna raise it up to the topmost tray in my grow house.
Week 4: Turnips grow nicely and are Ready to transplant
They’re ready to transplant on week four and they’re growing on nicely.
So pick yourself a spot in the garden. If your soil is very dry it might be worth just giving it quick water this will hold the soil together and it will make for easier transplanting.
Now grab your cell tray and using a pencil poke out the cell from the module using the hole in the bottom and just ease it out and just pop it to one side for now.
You don’t need to take all of the seedlings to take the strongest and as many as you plan on growing on and the smallest can go back into the compost heap or leave them in the tray to grow on if you like.
Now what you’re looking out for is when you poke it out you’ll see that the roots are starting to push down and reveal at the bottom this is about right too long then they’ll start to loop around and they won’t transplant as well. They want to space these out a couple of inches apart.
Poke a Dibble or a tall handle down into the ground to make a hole which is the same depth as the cell, the idea is that the pod will there just drops straight down into the hole which will limit route disturbance which is exactly what we want.
Place your fingers on either side and just gently push it down there into the soil and do that for the whole row. I’m going to do a couple of rows here with just a couple in the middle just to use them up and there we go.
Now when I give that another water, any transplanted plant needs good water for the next few days it’ll help it establish new roots and we’ll stop it drying out because their roots are still quite shallow.
Week 5: Growing nicely and healthy
So when we come back on week five we can see that they’re going very well they’re looking very happy the leaves are nice and strong and they both survived they’re all healthy. Keep them watered to stop them from drying out.
Week 6: Turnips are Growing on
In week six we can see they’re filling up their space there’s very little space now between the plants means we’ve got the spacing right and they’re nice and healthy.
Week 7: Roots Showing
In week seven you can notice that the roots are starting to show and just see in there you can see they’re just starting to push out a little we’re getting there.
Week 8: Roots Growing
And week eight the roots really are growing now you can see they’re poking out the distinctive purple color of these Milan purple.
Week 9: Turnips Roots still growing
Week nine the roots are still growing and they’re starting to take shape we’re not far away now from harvesting these.
3. After you grow your Turnips its time for Harvesting
After two months of growing turnips are ready to harvest. So what we’re gonna do we’re gonna harvest the larger roots from the clumps where the root is raised to harvest now we take here the base and twist it out we don’t pull it out. By pulling it or damaged the other plants in that clump.
We want them to carry on growing for the next couple of weeks so we twist them out and remove just the largest of the roots.
I really hoped you enjoyed this article. Please share this article with your friends and family. Happy Gardening!
Also read 9 Best Vegetables to Grow in spring (easy vegetables to grow)
