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Too early for turnips??

NWBuck

NWBuck

PMA Member
We've got several small plots which will be put into a turnip/radish/rape mixture. After a drowned out May and June, we've suddenly gone very dry here, so I'm trying to catch a rain shortly after seeding if possible. Sounds like a decent chance here Thursday PM, so was considering putting at least a couple of the plots in Thursday morning. That would be considerably sooner than I've ever put them in before...is it too soon? Believe the earliest prior was right around August 1st and the turnips ended up the size of a softball...or bigger. Thoughts?? Anyone else putting them in yet??

NWBuck
 
Yep. You should plant them mid to late july. I planted mine on Sunday. This is the schedule that dbltree recommends. I had great success with them last year planting them around this time. You need 60-90 days before first frost to have good growth.
 
NW, I would go ahead and plant them now, it isn't too early at all. But having said that, I have also planted turnips and GHFR as late as right around Labor Day and still had fair success on them.

In my experience, it seems like over the past 5-7 years we have had wildly varying amounts of rain in the late summer and early fall time frame. This makes it really tough to guage exactly when we should plant in a given year, but all you can do is go with your best effort and hope you catch some nice rains.

But normally, anytime from late-July to mid-August is the preferred planting window for brassicas. Earlier can work, later can work, but that is the sweet spot to aim for.
 
Planted most of mine last weekend, but missed all the rain so far. Getting the rest in today.
 
Got mine in saturday evening and they are close to a half inch tall already... theyre lovin the garden hose!
 
Thanks guys...guess if forecast continues to look good for rain Thursday night we'll go ahead and put some of them in ahead of that.

One year I put them in on August 18th (I remember the date...our anniversary :D ) and they only developed to about the size of a ping pong ball, but that seemed to be the year the deer just went crazy for them! My hesitation is that in our area anyway, it seems like the bigger the turnips develop the less the deer prefer them. Just weighing that against the possibility of hitting a timely rain I guess. Maybe run a little experiment and stretch the plantings out over a couple of weeks. Thanks again :way:

NWBuck
 
I've had a similar experience with size. To hunt over I'd prefer ping pong to baseball size. The bigger the plants get the longer it takes the deer to utilize them. When large I've found it doesn't start until mid January or later for use.
 
Planted mine on 7/13 in northern WI. Will have a frost there likely by the 3rd week of September, so I think I timed it pretty well. Will get my first look at it next weekend.
I also planted some kohlrabi with it as an experiment.
 
There is an old saying "25th day of July sow your turnips wet or dry" I nailed it this year have done it a week earlier to 3 weeks later with success. The later you get the more mother nature has to cooperate with your growing season.
 
We planted ours last year on August 18th........and although I wouldn't recommend waiting that long, it still worked out for us with timely rains.

Much farther ahead this year....planning on planting the last plot next Sunday, August 3rd, if the weather cooperates.
 
Putting 2 1/4 acres in tomorrow. Wish it would have been a week ago but there's a few chances of rain next week.
 
Central Iowa said:
There is an old saying "25th day of July sow your turnips wet or dry" I nailed it this year have done it a week earlier to 3 weeks later with success. The later you get the more mother nature has to cooperate with your growing season.
Click to expand...

Never heard it but I'll never forget it now
 
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