Turnip failure

[Ranger J]

Many people in our area (Missouri Ozarks) found their turnips not making bulbs but all going to leaves this year.  I had three varieties planted and the only ones to make at all were the old fashion purple tops.  Even they did not produce like usual.  I guess this would have been OK if I was one of those people who really like turnip greens but I find that about one mess a year will do me.  A nice raw turnip on the other hand….
RJ

[jvs]

Sometimes when a Root Crop ends up bad below ground and very good above ground it is because of using the improper Fertilizer or too much Fertilizer for Root Crops.   It could also mean the ground was too hard for the Root crop to fight and grow.  Tilling Mulch below ground will help the hardness problem.

Perhaps a good Soil Test Kit will tell you what you have too much of or what you are deficient in for certain crops.   Generally speaking, rotating your crops is a good idea unless you rotate crops that require certan nutrients that are either in overabundance or lacking in certain areas of your Garden.  

The good news is that this is the time of year to prepare for next spring.  Finding out now what went wrong this year will help you really produce next year.

Were all of your Root Crops small with a full head of hair or just the Turnips?

[Ranger J]

The only other root crops I tried some oxheart carrots and they were pretty miserable also but earlier in the year the onions were real good.  The rutabagas didn’t do much either but I never seem to have much luck with them.  The problem seems to be area wide this year as no one seems to have good turnip roots and I had them planted in three raised beds so soil compaction should not have been a problem.  One of my friends got so aggravated at his turnip patch that he went and mowed them down and dang it if then they resprouted and began to make bulbs.  I couldn’t find any seeds for my favorite white turnip ‘just right’ this year so I planted another white verity that supposed to produce large roots but didn’t.  The purple tops that I planted for the deer to eat are doing the best and I may get some if the deer don’t ear all the tops and we don’t get a hard freeze first
RJ.

[jvs]

No doubt about it, the use of raised bed gardens is probably the best there is for all home crops, root crops in particular.  

Maybe they type of Turnips you planted, except for the purple tops, had a bad year because of some kind of blight or other disease that attacked to plant in some form.   Not all Turnips are alike when it comes to genetics.

I learned an hard lesson two years ago with tomato plants.  The type I bought were not immune to blight.  And that happened during a year when two seperate blights swept through the area killing most of the tomato plants around here.

This past year I talked to a plant nursery owner about it and he recommended buying only certain blight resistant varieties, which I did.  I dont remember right now what alphabetical designation those plants had which informed the buyer about the blight resistance, but they are readily available for tomato's.  

I suppose that there was something genetically different about your purple top turnips compared to the others that made the others incompatible to your area for one reason or another.  Most places that sell seed or plants know whether the stock they have is immune to certain problems associated to that particular vegetable.  Checking catalogs may help you find out if there are resistant varieties of Turnips.

I can guess that this is not the first time you planted Turnips, so over-fertilizing and/or using a fertilizer too high in Nitrogen should not be a factor, both of which can lead to what you describe.  The answer should lie somewhere between the types planted (and what they are resistant to), Ph and fertilizing.  Either of those can easily be corrected.