Daddy planted a turnip, it grew big, very big ... We all remember this folk tale from childhood, but who knows what a turnip tastes like? For some reason, a truly Russian, useful, perfectly stored vegetable has been undeservedly forgotten, and has long lost its possessions in the garden.
And if you eat fresh turnips every day, it will be able to completely saturate the body with vitamin C, reduce the chances of malignant tumors and diabetes mellitus, increase immunity and, in many cases, even help you lose weight.
Or maybe we will return legal land to the turnip? Growing it is not at all difficult, you just need to know the basic rules of care.
Turnip soil
One of the basic rules for growing a vegetable says: juicy and large root crops grow only where the soil is loose. They don't like clay soil.
Like any representative of cruciferous plants, turnip will not give good yields in the place where its relatives grew last summer - radishes, cabbage, mustard. Places after strawberries, pumpkins, potatoes, legumes, zucchini will be favorable.
Root crops can be obtained twice. Sow the seeds in the spring, as soon as the snow melts (young turnips are not afraid of small frosts) - and you will eat them in the summer; and plant in July or early August - collect vegetables for winter storage.
Preparing seeds and planting turnips
The seed will give more active shoots if it is warmed up in very warm water beforehand. The grains are placed on a cloth, rolled up and kept in water at a temperature of 40-50 ° C for about five minutes. Then they are slightly dried and mixed with sand.
Seeds are placed in prepared grooves (up to 4 cm). Half of them are covered with sand, then crushed with ash and spilled well - it is better to use solutions of EM preparations. Since turnip does not like thickening, it will be ideal to patiently plant two or three grains every 10 cm. This is painstaking work, but then there will be no need to thin out several times, which can damage the roots.
The planted seeds are first sprinkled with sand, then compost or loose soil. Then the crops are covered with non-woven material - if we sow early, you can take a film. Two days later, the canvas is removed, and on the third day the first sprouts will hatch. Turnip is a cold-resistant culture, it sprouts even at 2-3 ° C. The best temperature conditions for growing crops are 15-18 ° C.
Care, watering and feeding turnips during the season
After the emergence of seedlings, they are immediately sprinkled with ash. She will scare off a cruciferous flea, and will serve as a fertilizer. It is better to mulch a bed with turnips, otherwise constant loosening will be required. Hay or straw is used as mulch.
If you think that loosening is a better option for turnips, do not forget to add ash to the soil each time.
Wood ash is considered to be the best fertilizer for these root crops. Therefore, once every two weeks, feed the plants with an ash infusion (for a ten-liter bucket of water about a glass of ash). In the first weeks of growth, when several true leaves appear, you can water the sprouts with herbal infusion. But nothing more! Litter, urea, turnips are not needed.An excess of nitrogen will give root crops a bitter and scary look.
Watering is carried out one or two per week based on weather conditions. In order for the turnips to be large and even, the soil must be well moistened and the degree of drying must be monitored. And here mulch will help perfectly, which will retain moisture at the roots.
Harvesting turnip
Harvesting on time is very important, otherwise the root vegetables will become coarse, taste worse and will be poorly stored. Therefore, save the seed bag where the ripening time is indicated (about 40-60 days).
After digging the roots out of the soil, immediately cut off the tops and only then dry the vegetables in the air. If this is not done, some of the useful elements will go to the tops. This is typical not only for turnips, but also for other root crops.
Strong and healthy turnips are stored well, in the cool of the cellar they will wait for the next harvest without any problems, but only if they remain. After all, a delicious vegetable salad made from fresh turnips will make the whole family forget the road to the clinic and pharmacies and not remember about colds during the cold season.
