Direct sowing turnips

rdavidp 3/22/2013, 7:20 am

My planting guide says to plant turnips this weekend. Well...not so sure about that. Forecast for the next 5 days is lows in the lower 30s, but not freezing, and highs in the mid-40s to very low 50s. 10 day forecast, which I typically believe in the direct opposite of what it says, is that it may start getting up into the 50s regularly by the end of the month. Should I just go ahead and try direct sowing my seeds and see what happens? The whole pack of seeds was only around about two dollars. Can't enjoy an early harvest without taking the risk.

**dvelten** 3/22/2013, 7:53 am

I would go by soil temperature. Optimum soil temps for turnip germination are 55-75*F. Seeds are planted only 1/4" deep and can take 1-2 weeks to germinate, so I suspect air temps and sunshine can cause a lot of swings of temps in that top inch of soil. If you have plenty of seed you could try planting now but expect germination might be spotty.

**walshevak** 3/22/2013, 2:18 pm

Since you will probably want more than 1 square for succession purposes, go ahead and plant one now and another in 2 weeks. As my Mom used to say, "Columbus took a chance and look where it got us." My turnips are barely breaking ground down here in zone 8A.

Kay

rdavidp 3/22/2013, 2:22 pm

walshevak wrote:Since you will probably want more than 1 square for succession purposes, go ahead and plant one now and another in 2 weeks. As my Mom used to say, "Columbus took a chance and look where it got us." My turnips are barely breaking ground down here in zone 8A.

Kay

Oh, I am planting a whole bunch of squares of turnips. I also plan to do a lot of freezing and canning too. Very Happy

I was thinking of going ahead and planting one or two squares Saturday, if I can get a chicken wire fence around my garden put up. It is supposed to be rainy and cloudy Sunday, possibility of light snow that won't be sticking around for long.

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Direct sowing turnips

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