Thursday, October 25, 2012

Purple Top Turnip

 I had so much fun growing purple top turnip this year after more than a year trying to grow them successfully but did not get much of a root to enjoy. But this year I got it right and the best thing was that I don't even took care of them, never water and feed them. The turnip plant grows only with rain water. What I did was only sowing the seeds. It was only the matter of sowing the seeds on the right time and season. To grow them easily will be early-mid autumn which is March and April. Later than that the turnip might not give me much root but will probably produce flower much earlier. Thank you to Mr. H owner of Subsistence Pattern for introducing me this beautiful root vegetable.
Purple Top Turnip Seedlings.
Sowing turnip seeds in spring for me is a bit tricky if it get stress out due to lack of water will bolt easily. We really have dry weather by end of spring so it hard to make sure the soil does not dry out quickly.
Its time to thin those plants.
Sometime I got confuse whether these are turnips or radish plants if the label gone missing. Yes, the small hands in our home love to collect these labels. I always wonder how in other gardens all round the corner of this humble earth their turnip roots develop rather quickly and some I read harvested the roots in two months. Ours turnip roots does take long time to develop in good size. Although I sow them early autumn, it usually in spring seasons that I can enjoy harvesting the root. The root starts develop in spring and not much in winter except for the leafy top.
Turnips rubbing shoulders because the gardener did not bother to thin them was on sick leave :P.
Can be grown in container.
Oh my that turnip is squashing a volunteer celery I see.
Slugs/Snails must have been having a taste of that turnip looking at those scratches.
The container I have been using is only about 20cm deep.
Yup yup yup had so much fun growing them this year.
Or should I said not taking care of them this year at all.

27 comments:

JaSSNaNi said...

snails sangat suka tunips ek.. ?
ni kalau makan ubinye ke? buat masak apa?

MaDiHaA a.k.a Ratna said...

rasa mcm tak pernah nampak turnip kat pasar... sama tak rasa turnip dengan radish?

suka suka said...

kita panggil sengkuang right? tapi yg putih la...apa rasanya? ada probability to be planted in Malaysia?

kitchen flavours said...

What lovely turnips! Did not know about this variety! Love the colour! Can the stalks of the turnips be eaten?

Mark Willis said...

What did you think of their flavour? Sometimes this type of turnip can be rather watery. I'd be interested to hear how you cooked them.

mat jon said...

taste sama macam beetrot jugak ke? ke ada rasa pedas?

Umm AA said...

salam..

wah cantik colornyer..suka tgk..mcm family radish jugak kan..

btw - selamat hari raya, semoga happylah wpun beraya jauh dari family ..wah tahniah abby dah nak aqiqah ya... ok..take care and thanks for everything...

Nitesky said...

Tanam rapat2 gemok juga ye

AtieYusof said...

Cantik colour dia..
belum pernah tgk real :)
singgah sini & follow..
Klu sudi follow sy balik..
im also Sabahan :).

admin said...

boleh tuai sudah tu, besar suda.. hehe

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Oh my! I love their crunchiness. Raw in salads, to me, is the best. purrr...meow

Daphne Gould said...

Beautiful turnips. Sometimes neglect is good. I don't like the purple top one (the turnip that is most common in the US) quite as much as the Japanese variety. So I only grow the smaller all white ones now.

Sue Garrett said...

Just goes to show we can be too attentive!

Mama Pongkey said...

Easy to care, no need to water, sounds like my kind of veggie. :-) I have seen turnips in children's books but never in real life, if I remember correctly.

Lrong Lim said...

Such beautiful colors... would like to try growing it in the future...

Sunray Gardens said...

Interesting following the photos of this one. I'd plant a lot more of those. :)
Cher Sunray Gardens

tina said...

They are beautiful! You did a good job. I can imagine it would be hard to keep them from bolting.

Unknown said...

You have avery good harvest. The nice purple colour makes the turnip even more appetising. Do try out turnip pancakes - real yummy.

rainfield61 said...

a good gardener always has good harvests.

Skeeter said...

I love that purple color but not a big fan of eating them though.

Kate said...

I love crops like this! Just sewing a few seeds and letting nature do the rest seems so ideal.

Lee said...

Hi, love your plants and the turnips really beautiful.
One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.
Have fun and keep a song in your heart.
Best wishes,
Lee.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

JaSSNani~Siput tu kebuluran agaknya cepat lapar bila sejuk-sejuk waktu malam. Makan ubinya selalu masak jenis bersup.

MaDiHaA~Ada rasa beza sikit dengan radish. Rasanya tak sepedas radish atau tak berbau macam radish.

Kak Mar~Rasanya panggil lobak kut. Diana tak pandai nak describe rasanya...hehehe...kena cuba-cuba je kut tanam. Cuma perlu jaga moisture tanahnya yang selalu penting.

Joyce~Yes the stalks of the turnip are edible so bolehlah mau makan.

Mark~I prefer this turnip rather than snowball turnip. Our snowball turnip was a bit dry and stringy probably due to not enough water as well.

Mat Jon~ Tak de rasa macam beetroot dan tak pedas juga.

UmmuAidan~Macam family radish kalau dalam group brassica tapi lagi closer to cabbage/broccoli kut kalau ikut scientific namenya. Take care awal-awal ni tak boleh lasak badan lagi, jangan panjat-panjat ya.

Nitesky~ Kali ni tak kisah pula turnip tu nak berkawan-kawan rapat. Ada mood juga kut...hehehe...

aTieYusof Family~ Salam perkenalan. Bila keizinan masa atau baby bagi chance akan lawat juga nanti.

Donny Len~ Habis sudah masuk dalam perut kami.

Cat-from-Sydney~Potong hiris-hiris dalam salad ke Mama Angelina?

Daphne~Probably I should try the small white ones too and compare the taste.

Sue~Yeah sometime maybe good to let them grow by themselves rather than keep on wishing they grow faster.

Mama Pongkey~Samalah kita. First time tau about turnip from children's books and imprinted in my mind so much that I like to try growing them in our own garden.

Lrong~ Yeah beautiful turnip variety.

Cher~Put some colours in our winter garden when lack of colours than green.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Tina~ Yes its hard to keep the soil moist other than winter season as Adelaide is the state city in down under which have the least amount of rain water to keep them from bolting.

Stiletto~I have not tried turnip pancakes. Thanks for the idea.

Rainfield61~ Just lucky ;-).

Skeeter~I only like home-grown turnip not the market ones ;-).

Kate~Yeah I like to do the sowing and let the nature do the rest. I only can do this in fall/autumn. But spring and summer, nature will not permit it.

Uncle Lee~The anticipation do teach us gardeners a lot patience. Not good to rush good things.

Wendy said...

I just saw something really clever in a magazine using large pretty turnips like you have. They scooped out the inside and lined with something and then filled with some food - can't remember if it was dip or some sort of snacky food.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Wendy ~ Cool and I bet it looks very pretty too.

blog pendidikan said...

salam kenal nih, suka dengan artikel anda terima kasih untuk berbagi.