May turnip

You grow the turnip as an annual. Harvest the roots around the first frost and simply sow anew from March the following spring. You keep harvested roots fresh for weeks by storing them in a box of slightly moist sand in a cool, frost-free place (cellar, garage).

The turnip is propagated exclusively by direct sowing. Other methods make no sense for this root vegetable. Sow the seeds from March to May directly in the outdoor bed as soon as the soil has warmed to about 8 °C; in a cold frame a first round is possible from February. A second round of sowing from July to August gives an autumn harvest as “autumn turnips”. Scatter the seeds thinly in rows 20 to 25 cm apart and cover them with only about 1 to 2 cm of soil. After emergence you thin to 10 to 15 cm in the row, so that the small roots can develop properly. The crop time is only 6 to 8 weeks. Plan therefore several staggered sowings every 2 to 3 weeks to harvest continuously. Botanically the turnip is biennial: in the first year it forms root and leaf rosette, but in the home garden it is harvested as an annual. If you want to save your own seed, let individual strong plants overwinter. They shoot in the second year, form yellow flowers and ripen seeds, which you can dry and sow again the next spring. Make sure there is enough distance from other Brassica rapa forms to avoid unwanted cross-pollination; with F1 hybrid varieties saving seed is not worthwhile, because the offspring do not come true to type.