Turnips

01 About

One of the fastest root vegetables you can grow — baby turnips can be pulled about six weeks after sowing. Sow in spring for tender early crops, or in summer for autumn and early winter roots.

02 What to Grow

Turnips divide into fast early types like Tokyo Cross F1, Purple Top Milan and Atlantic F1, sown from March to June for tender baby roots, and maincrop sowings made in July or the first half of August, which crop in autumn. Golden Ball has golden skin and yellow flesh, and Petrowski is a sweet, mild yellow turnip from Poland. The young leaves of any turnip can be picked as greens.

03 Varieties

The number of varieties shown for each crop is based on UK consumption data (2025/26) — the more popular the crop, the more variety choices we include.

⚡ Fast & Early

Quick-maturing varieties for baby turnips and summer harvests. Ready in 6–8 weeks.

Tokyo Cross F1

White globe · Seed

A fast-maturing hybrid producing smooth white roots with mild, sweet flesh. Excellent for successional sowing and baby turnips.

• AGM
• F1
• Fast-maturing

Purple Top Milan

Flat purple-top · Seed

A quick early variety with attractive purple and white flat roots. Mild flavour when lifted young. Good for spring and late summer sowing.

• Early
• Fast-maturing

Oasis F1

Salad turnip · Seed

A sweet, juicy white turnip that can be eaten raw when young. Excellent for containers and raised beds.

• AGM
• F1
• ⭐ Flavour

Atlantic F1

Purple-top hybrid · Seed

Quick-growing early hybrid. The round white roots are flushed pale purple around the top. Pull them young as baby turnips; it grows well in pots and suits a February start under cloches.

• F1
• Early

🍂 Maincrop & Winter

Varieties for sowing in summer and harvesting in autumn and early winter.

Snowball

White globe · Seed

A reliable white turnip producing round, tender roots with crisp flesh. A good beginner variety for summer or autumn harvests.

• Beginners

🌿 Yellow Turnips

Yellow-skinned varieties with a sweet flavour.

Golden Ball

Yellow heritage · Seed

A traditional yellow-fleshed turnip with a sweet, rich flavour. Good for autumn crops, adds colour to stews and roasting dishes.

• Heritage
• ⭐ Flavour

Petrowski

Yellow · Seed

Polish yellow-skinned turnip with a gentle, sweet taste. Can be sown in spring or again in late summer.

• ⭐ Flavour

04 Where to Source

Turnips are always grown from seed, widely available at garden centres and online. Sow direct where they are to grow, or in modules indoors in late winter for an early start. Seed is inexpensive and widely available.

📬 Seeds by Post

Online seed companies offer the widest selection — including fast-maturing Japanese types and yellow varieties that garden centres rarely stock. Seed is inexpensive; buy several types to extend harvest from spring through winter.

🏪 Garden Centres

Garden centres stock a reliable core range — Purple Top Milan, Tokyo Cross F1, and Golden Ball are commonly available from February onwards. Good for an immediate start without waiting for a postal order.

05 Planting Options

🌱 Open Ground

Turnips are best sown direct where they are to grow. Sow in shallow drills 1cm deep and 30cm apart, thinning to 10cm for baby turnips, 15cm for early varieties or 23cm for maincrops. Spring sowings from March provide early baby crops; sowings from July to mid-August produce roots for autumn harvests and storage. Successional sowing every 3 weeks maintains a continuous harvest.

Suitable varieties: All varieties. Snowball and Golden Ball suit sowings for autumn roots. Fast-maturing types like Tokyo Cross F1 and Purple Top Milan are ideal for successional spring and summer sowings.

🪵 Raised Bed

Raised beds are excellent for early spring turnip sowings — the soil warms 2–3 weeks ahead of open ground and drains freely. Sow direct from mid-February under cloches or from March without protection. The loose growing medium produces clean, well-shaped roots. Baby turnip harvests in raised beds are particularly rewarding — harvest at golf-ball size for the finest flavour.

Suitable varieties: Fast-maturing baby types like Tokyo Cross F1, Purple Top Milan and Atlantic F1.

🏠 Cloche / Cold Frame Start

A cloche or cold frame allows turnip sowings from late February, 4–6 weeks ahead of open ground. Place cloches on the bed 2 weeks before sowing to warm the soil. Direct-sow under the cloche and remove it once daytime temperatures reliably exceed 12°C. This method produces the earliest baby turnips of the year — harvested in May when no other outdoor turnip crop is ready.

Suitable varieties: Early varieties only, such as Atlantic F1 and Purple Top Milan — both suited to a February start under cloches. No benefit to cloching maincrop types.

06 Companion Planting

✅ Grow nearby

• 

  🫛 Peas

  Peas and turnips work well in rotation — peas fix nitrogen that benefits subsequent brassica crops including turnips. Both are cool-season crops that can follow each other in the same bed.

• 

  🍃 Spinach

  Spinach can be interplanted between turnip rows as a quick catch crop. Spinach matures rapidly and is harvested before turnips need the full space. Both prefer cool, moist conditions.

• 

  🌸 Nasturtiums

  Nasturtiums planted at the bed edge act as a trap crop for aphids and cabbage white butterflies, drawing them away from the nearby turnip plants.

❌ Keep apart

• 🥦 Other Brassicas — Turnips are brassicas — do not follow or plant alongside cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, or cauliflower. Rotate them all together as one group to prevent clubroot build-up.
• 🌼 Mustard — Mustard green manures can harbour brassica pests and diseases. Avoid digging mustard in immediately before a turnip crop in the same bed.

07 Sowing — How To

Turnips are usually sown direct and are one of the fastest-growing root vegetables — baby turnips can be pulled about six weeks after sowing. Sow in succession from March for a continuous supply. Avoid midsummer sowings in hot spells as heat causes bolting; late July to August sowings give excellent autumn and early winter crops.

1. 

   Drill the row

   Draw drills 1cm deep, 30cm apart. For baby turnips, rows can be closer at 20cm. The soil does not need deep preparation — turnips grow fast in most reasonable conditions.

2. 

   Sow seeds

   Sow seeds thinly along the drill. Turnip seed is small so take care not to over-sow. Thinning is fiddly work — thin sowing saves time later.

3. 

   Thin seedlings

   Thin to 10cm apart for baby turnips, 15cm for early varieties or 23cm for maincrops. Use thinnings in salads or stir-fries — the young leaves are delicious.

4. 

   Baby harvest

   Pull baby turnips when golf-ball sized for the sweetest, most tender flavour. They can be eaten raw, roasted, or braised whole.

5. 

   Winter crop

   Late-sown turnips (July to mid-August) are left to mature for autumn and early winter harvesting. Hard frost can harm the roots, so lift them before a severe cold spell — or, in milder parts, cover the row and pull them as you need them.

Regional sowing timing

Region	Sow / plant	Harvest	Notes
Scotland & Far North	Apr–Aug	Jul–Nov	Avoid early March sowings — cold soils cause failure. April most reliable for first sowing; August for winter crop · Apr–Aug
Northern England	Mar–Aug	Jun–Nov	First sowings late March to April; avoid July in hot dry spells. August sowing gives excellent winter crop · Mar–Aug
Midlands & Wales	Mar–Aug	May–Nov	Sow from late March; successional sowings every 3 weeks. Avoid midsummer if very hot and dry — bolt risk · Mar–Aug
Ireland & Isle of Man	Apr–Aug	Jun–Nov	April to August most reliable. Atlantic climate reduces bolt risk in summer. August sowing excels in milder west · Apr–Aug
South & SE England	Mar–Aug	May–Nov	From late March; watch for bolting in July heat. August sowing highly productive for autumn and early winter · Mar–Aug
South Coast & SW	Mar–Aug	May–Dec	Longest season — mild winters can extend the harvest into December · Mar–Aug

08 Using a Propagator

Turnips are not conventionally started in a propagator as they grow best from direct sowing. However, module-sowing in a cool greenhouse or unheated propagator can give a 3–4 week head start for the first spring crop, particularly in Scotland and Northern England.

Heated propagator

Set no higher than 12–15°C — turnips germinate in as little as 5 days in cool conditions and higher temperatures cause leggy, weak seedlings. Sow 2 seeds per module, 2cm deep, and remove the smaller seedling if both come up. Move them outside while they are still young, easing each plug out gently so the roots stay intact.

Standard unheated propagator — A lidded seed tray traps warmth and humidity around germinating seeds without electricity. Performance depends entirely on room temperature — best placed on a warm windowsill and used from March onwards. Replace the lid promptly after watering. Remove it completely the moment seedlings emerge to prevent damping off.

09 Soil Requirements

pH

6.0–7.5

Best

Loam, Clay loam

Tolerates

Sandy loam

Avoid

Very sandy, Acid

10 Ongoing Care

💧 Watering

Water regularly during dry spells — turnips need consistent moisture to develop tender, mild-flavoured roots. Drought causes the roots to become tough, woody, and peppery. A weekly deep watering is better than frequent shallow watering. Mulch to retain moisture in summer.

✂️ Thinning

Thin early varieties to 15cm apart and maincrops to 23cm; baby turnips and leafy tops need only about 10cm. Thin in two stages — first to 5cm, then to final spacing. Thinnings can be used as turnip tops. Overcrowded turnips produce small, poorly formed roots with tough flesh.

🫚 Harvesting

Summer turnips are best harvested small — the size of a golf ball to a tennis ball — when they are sweet and tender. Once they pass tennis-ball size the flesh tends to go tough and bitter. Pull or twist from the ground. Lift late-sown turnips before hard frosts; in mild areas they can stay in the ground under fleece or straw and be lifted as needed.

🌿 Turnip Tops

The young leaves of turnips are edible and nutritious — harvest the thinnings and young leaves from established plants as a cut-and-come-again green. Cut plants grow fresh leaves, so you can pick more than once. If it is the roots you are after, leave most of the foliage on each plant so the roots keep swelling.

11 Watch Out For

🐛 Insects & pests

• 🦋 Cabbage Moth Caterpillar — Wilting or collapse of the central growing point of cabbages and Brussels sprouts
• 🦋 Cabbage White Caterpillar — Yellow, ribbed, skittle-shaped eggs in neat clusters on the underside of leaves in summer
• 🐌 Slugs & Snails — Silver slime trails on leaves, soil, and pots — often the first sign before damage is found
• 🐜 Aphids (Blackfly & Greenfly) — Curled, distorted, or stunted growing tips — aphids inject saliva that causes leaf curl to protect them
• 🕊 Pigeons — Brassica leaves stripped to bare ribs from the outside inward — all that remains is the midrib and main veins

🍄 Diseases to watch

• 🥦 Clubroot — Clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae) is arguably the most feared soil-borne disease in UK kitchen gardens. It persists in the soil as resting spores for up to 20 years — meaning a bed that becomes infected is effectively lost for brassica growing for two decades without extraordinary intervention. Crop rotation is the most critical preventive measure.
• 🔵 Downy Mildew — Downy mildew is caused by oomycetes (water moulds) and is completely unrelated to powdery mildew despite the similar name. It thrives in cool, wet, humid conditions and is most damaging in spring and autumn. Each host plant has its own specific downy mildew species. Lettuce downy mildew can destroy an entire bed within days in the right conditions.
• ⬜ Powdery Mildew — Powdery mildew is caused by a range of related fungi, each specific to its host plant — courgette mildew cannot infect peas, and vice versa. The characteristic white powdery coating on leaf surfaces appears in warm, dry conditions (unlike downy mildew which prefers cool and wet). Rarely kills plants but severely reduces yield and plant vigour.

Full identification and treatment advice is in the Pests and Diseases sections.

12 Storage & Preserving

🌱 Leave in Ground

Where winters are mild, leave the roots in the soil and pull them when wanted. To guard against hard frost, lay about 15cm of straw or bracken over the row and pin it down with fleece or netting, and eat them up by late winter. Where winters are cold, lift and store them under cover instead.

🪣 Boxes of Sand

If the ground is needed, or in cold areas, lift the roots, pack them in boxes of barely damp sand or coir and keep them somewhere cool where frost cannot reach, such as a shed. Expect them to last a few weeks.

🍳 Roast and Freeze

Dice, roast until golden and freeze in portions. Ideal for adding to winter soups, stews, and roasts.

13 Expert Tips

14 Common Mistakes

15 See Also

• 🌼 Companion Planting
• 🔄 Crop Rotation