Rutabagas or Swedish Turnips
Brassica napus var. napobrassica. BRASSICACEAE.
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Rutabagas
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow rutabagas in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- How many rutabagas or Swedish turnips to plant
- Growing conditions for rutabagas or Swedish turnips
- When to plant rutabagas or Swedish turnips
- How to plant rutabagas or Swedish turnips
- Watering, fertilizing, and pruning rutabagas or Swedish turnips
- Companion plantings for rutabagas or Swedish turnips
- How to harvest, store, and use rutabagas or Swedish turnips
Growing Rutabagas or Swedish Turnips
Rutabagas or Swedish turnips are cool-season root vegetables. Smooth, waxy, oval leaves rise on long reddish stalks from swollen, red, white, and yellow, tough-skinned, globe-shaped roots, 3–5 lbs. (1.1–1.8 kg).
Sweeter than turnips, a close relative; eat both the young leaves, as you would turnip greens, and the tasty, distinctively flavored roots.
Rutabaga Plant and Care Guide
How Much to Plant
Allow 4–8 plants per household member.
How to Plant
Seed germinates in 7–10 days.
Average Climates: Sow seed or transplant seedlings in full sun in early summer when soil warms to 50–70°F (10–21°C).
Mild-Winter Climates: Sow seed in spring, then again in early autumn.
Autumn–Winter Gardens: Sow seed in July for harvest in Winter–Spring.
Sow seed 1/2-in. (12-mm) deep, 4 in. (10 cm) apart, thinning to 10–16 in. (25–40 cm) apart, in rows 18–36 in. (45–90 cm) apart. Plant successions 3–4 weeks apart.
Best Conditions for Growth
40–75°F (4–24°C).
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained, sandy loam. Fertility: Rich. 5.5–6.8 pH. Prepare soil at least 2 ft. (60 cm) deep.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist; irregular watering may cause cracked roots. Fertilize only at time of planting with 5–10–10 formula or well-rotted manure supplemented with gypsum. In cold-winter climates before the first hard freeze, mulch with 6–10 in. (15–25 cm) of straw covered with 4–6 in. (10–15 cm) of soil. Cultivate. Trim outermost foliage, and lodge plants when roots begin to swell. Pest and disease resistant.
Pairing Recommendations
Beets, carrots, and turnips.
Maturity, Picking and Gathering
85–100 days. Harvest when tops are 1 ft. (30 cm) tall and roots are 3–4 in. (75–100 mm) wide, digging carefully with a garden fork.
How to Store and Preserve
Roots: fresh, in ground at 24–80°F (- 4–27°C), for 4 months; in vegetable keeper of refrigerator, 2–4 months; diced, blanched, and frozen, 4–6 months. Greens: fresh in vegetable keeper of refrigerator for 5–7 days; steamed and frozen, 3–4 months.