Turnip seeds in one summer?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Has anyone experimented with making turnip seed in a single summer? For example spring planting the seeds, selecting the best early producers digging them, cold stressing them, and then replanting?

My growing season aught to be long enough (most years). Last fall I had a great harvest of turnips from seeds that were grown last summer. Any suggestions on methods?

I'm thinking:

Dig roots,
Let them dehydrate a few days in the field.
Store them dry for a week in the refrigerator.
Store them in ice-water in the fridge for a few days.
Plant them.


p.s. I was just out to my garden planting turnip roots that I'd dug last fall. While there I walked through the field and noticed that where I'd produced my seed last year that some of the volunteer turnips had survived the winter laying on top of the ground where the tiller left them last fall. ON TOP OF THE GROUND!!!!! with no winter protection whatsoever. Wow. Maybe that's the turnips I aught to be growing out for seed, then I wouldn't have to worry about storing them overwinter.

[spacecase0]

if I plant them where my garden is (dry heat near fresno, ca),
they go straight to seed without any big root forming,
or that is what they did last time I planted them in the spring

now that seems way more useful to me now
than it seemed at the time 25 years ago

[spacecase0]

after reading edit section:
I agree, grow the ones that lived,
problem solved

[mjc]

Turnips shouldn't be THAT difficult to save, after all they are one of the crops that have been grown for nigh on to forever. They are/were a European favorite BECAUSE they seldom failed. Turnips and cole crops were staples for years throughout most of Europe, including (or should that be especially) during the Little Ice Age...so they should be able to overwinter in most areas of the US, without much problem.

I'd save the survivors that have overwintered to try and return some of that 'hardiness' to them.

I've got 'feral' radishes that I'm working on collecting enough seed to be useful...one is a long white, the other is a long white with a purple top (they both bloom at slightly different times, so they remain relatively 'pure'). The long white started out about 18 yrs ago as ordinary Icicle that a large number of them went to seed and self seeded...now it handles the worst that can be thrown at it without batting an eye...and still is worth eating. The other...I've got no idea, but it is good too. Needless to say, I haven't really planted any radishes over the past few years. But they are much easier to manage when purposefully planted...

Turnips shouldn't be that much harder to 'localize'.

[ottawagardener]

I'm with everyone else on this. Nothing snappy to add other than a winter hardy turnip for your parts sounds doable.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Thanks.

So I ended up following your advice. I planted the turnips that I had saved indoors overwinter, that were the quickest growing from my fresh seed last summer. Then I also walked through the field and selected some of the volunteer turnip roots that survived undamaged laying on top of the ground overwinter, and planted them into my seed producing row.

In future years my intention is to select for quick growth and unprotected winter hardiness.

[robertb]

I let turnips self-sow one year, and got a useful crop that summer. If I was doing it again, I'd save the seed properly, as it's the way to get a really hardy strain.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

This summer I intend to stake the seed rows... Last year they grew up to 4 or 5 feet tall, and fell over and tore the roots out of the ground, and/or covered the nearby rows. I'm thinking some kind of weaving like I saw the other day for tomatoes.

[mjc]

I plant them close enough together that I can pull three plants into a sort of teepee and tie them together. It worked great for 7 Top (a greens turnip), so I imagine it should fine for others, too.

[raymondo]

I stake or tie together bunches of brassicas I let go to seed. They invariably fall over for me otherwise.

[mnjrutherford]

Stake the seed rows? You mean to support the green growth? I would have cut off the greens grown in the year and let them come again?

I've really only done this with carrots but the 2nd year stalk was much stronger... actually, as I write this, I think this occurred one year with my chard as well. But in that instance it just kept growing and producing for 2 seasons before going to seed. That is was in beautiful Silicon Valley where life is perfect.

[johno]

Just sharing my turnip story... a little off-topic. Recently I walked through the field where I fall-sowed several brassicas, etc., to see what would survive the winter (only turnips and one type of mustard did). I put any turnip fist-size or better that was still alive into the wheel-barrow, and ended up with 50 plus. They were mostly all growing above ground. Recently there was at least one night with sub zero temperatures, and a lot of nights in the single digits. Here's a pic:
i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_1280.jpg

Then I transplanted them.
i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_1282.jpg

And jumped back when I saw this stowaway.
i392.photobucket.com/albums/pp10/johnosgarden/100_1285-1.jpg

[iva]

Yikes!!!

[mnjrutherford]

Seems everybody likes a good turnip! So, just how many brassicas are biennial? I would not have thought that it would normally take 2 years to produce seed. I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to have a "growing" patch and a "seeding" patch with the idea that you grow for food year one, then transplant the best specimens to the "seeding" patch at the end of harvest. Carrots, chard, turnips, what else?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Feb 19, 2011 6:45:17 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

So, just how many brassicas are biennial? I would not have thought that it would normally take 2 years to produce seed. I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to have a "growing" patch and a "seeding" patch with the idea that you grow for food year one, then transplant the best specimens to the "seeding" patch at the end of harvest. Carrots, chard, turnips, what else?

I'd add beets, cabbage, onions, kohlrabi, parsnips, and kale to the biennial list. I till my entire field every year so I have to dig anything I want to save for seed. I have been saving parents in the garage, or in a pit, or in the basement, or in the fridge, etc... wondering if they will survive until spring so I can plant them. I'll start transplanting them to a new place in the field and let them overwinter if they will. I could bury them deeper than they originally grew, and mulch them if I think winter hardiness would be a problem. (Except for onions. I want to select onions that store really well for me.)

Two summers ago I grew rutabaga for the first time. I was very put out with it that 2/3 of the plants went to seed during the first growing season. I think I won't grow it again. Glad I don't have seed, it makes it easier to resist the temptation to plant.

Last time I grew carrot seeds I harvested 2 cups of seed. What am I going to do with 2 cups of carrot seed? Ha!!!