How to Plant and Grow Turnips for Roots and Greens | Gardener's Path

24.02.2024 - 16:31 / gardenerspath.com / Heather Buckner

How to Plant and Grow Turnips Brassica rapa subsp. rapa

I like to think of planning my garden as a balancing act.

While it takes a bit of self-restraint each year to keep from filling every inch of my yard with juicy tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, and giant sunflowers, I always appreciate the space I set aside for storage crops come winter.

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While perhaps not the most thrilling crop of the season, I love turnips for their hearty reliability, nutritional value, and great storage potential.

Turnips are root crops and members of the mustard family with a long history of human cultivation. Plants have slightly hairy green leaves, small yellow flowers, and white or yellow bulbs, with tops that can turn purple or green when exposed to sunlight as they grow above the soil.

Though you may only be aware of the classic purple top varieties found in grocery stores, this versatile crop comes in many cultivars varying in size, color, and flavor.

While they may not seem that fascinating at first glance, turnips have a long and rich history of human and animal use. This root crop traces back to at least Roman times, where they were a well-established part of the human diet. They likely originated from somewhere in West Asia or Europe, as wild varieties can be found in those areas.

Turnips have long been a crop of last resort and have saved many people from starvation throughout history.

During WW1, the winter of 1916-1917 was known as the “turnip winter” in Germany. The country was in the midst of a blockade, had suffered a failed potato harvest, and was facing a famine. Most of the