White turnip Brassica 'Platte witte mei' - Organic 10 m² - Vegetable seeds

Turnip (Brassica rapa) seed requires no prior treatment and the seed can be sown immediately. How to Sow Sow outdoors in the garden - March and April for earlies, July and August for lates. If you want even earlier, sow in the cold frame February and March.
For sowing swedes and turnips, a sunny place is best in a part of the kitchen garden that was well fertilised the previous winter.
Sow outdoors in March and April.
Loosen the soil with a fork to 30 cm deep. Make a straight furrow approx. 1 cm deep and label the row. Mix the seed with dry, sharp sand and sprinkle it along the row between thumb and forefinger as thinly as possible. Cover with half a cm of soil, press carefully down and sprinkle with water. Extra rows should be 30 cm apart.
If sowing under cold frame or in the greenhouse, you can do this from February already (as above). Grow your swedes or turnips on here because the seedlings don't take kindly to transplanting.
The seed should germinate in 7-14 days. Thin the seedlings out after 2 or 3 weeks and leave remaining plants at 15 cm apart.

Turnips (Brassica rapa) can always use a little extra fertiliser (some granulated cow manure) and, once well on their way, add some feed enriched with potassium. Turnips grow fast and need a good fertile soil that retains moisture so don't allow the soil around them to dry out - water regularly! Keep the bed free of weeds and they should thrive.
Turnip seedlings are not completely hardy but can withstand quite some cold. Harvesting Harvesting:
May to June for the really early sown turnips.
September and November for later sown ones.
Turnips grow really fast and can in the right circumstances be harvested about 30 days after seeding. Always take the biggest ones first - this allows those smaller ones to continue developing.
Dig up (or just pull up) individually or flip a few at once with the back of a rake.
The earlier you sow, the earlier in the season you can harvest your turnips.

This variety of turnip/swede (Brassica rapa) has a lovely white flesh and a reddish purple skin. It differs from winter turnip which has a tougher yellow flesh.  
Although a biannual plant, we harvest in the first year already because that's when the plant forms its tap root... the actual swede that we eat. In year two the plant will make a lot of leaf followed by an uninteresting flower.
Turnip swedes are fast growing and mostly pest and disease resistant. They can withstand a lot of cold and you can keep harvesting them until deep into autumn.
These swedes (Brassica rapa) belong in the family of Brassicaceae.