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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-186
Turnip
Brassica rapa
Turnip does double duty as a fast, cool-season vegetable and a cold-weather forage crop: the roots and leafy tops both mature in as little as 30 to 60 days, quick enough to fill a gap other crops leave empty. The greens taste like a slightly hot cabbage and the roots like a mild radish, and both the greens and the whole plant make good winter grazing right when warm-season pasture goes dormant. The taproot also drills down through compacted soil, and leaving it in the ground rather than harvesting keeps the minerals it pulls up in place. It reseeds readily if allowed to flower - useful if volunteers are wanted next season, a mowing chore before seed set if they aren't.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 5.5–7.5
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 12–18 in
- Mature spread
- 6–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 2–4 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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Alfalfa
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Aloe Vera
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
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Angelica
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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