Roots & tubers
Salad turnips (Hakurei)
The winter salad turnip; sow Sep to Oct, again Feb.
- Outside
- Direct Sep to Oct, again Feb
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Little and often; never dry, or they turn pithy
- Harvest
- Nov to Dec, again Mar to Apr
Care
- Water
- Little and often. These race to the plate in about five weeks, and never drying out is what keeps them crisp and sweet; a bed left dry turns the roots coarse and hot. Check the top inch by finger, and lean on the winter rains once the cool settles.
- Sow
- Direct sow September into October for the winter crop, with a second sowing in February, a quarter to half inch deep in wide bands. Thin to 3 inches once they are up. Travis County clocks Hakurei at 38 days, so the roots arrive fast on either side of winter.
- Feed
- A light, fast feeder: a shovel of compost or castings worked in at sowing carries the whole short crop. Skip the liquid feed and go easy on nitrogen, which pushes leaf at the root's expense.
- Ready
- Pull from golf ball up to about 2 inches across; anything bigger loses the crisp, mild character, and no peeling regardless. The county puts turnips on the frost-sweetening list, so the fall-winter crop is the sweetest of the year.
- Trouble
- Heat turns them sharp and pithy, which is why the sowings sit in the fall and February windows; a row that lingers into June is not worth pulling. Shot-hole pinpricks on the tops are flea beetles and cost the root little; a covered row comes up flawless.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 2–5 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in warm spells, every couple of days once winter arrives; a dry bag turnip turns coarse and hot.
- Sow
- The Texas container guide lists turnips at 2 gallons; sow a wide band across the bag and thin to a few plants. A fall bag succession is easier than the still-warm ground.
Hakurei salad turnips are the winter garden's treat here: white, apple-crisp roots about five weeks after a September sowing, sweetest after frost.
Growing
The county's September-October lists carry turnips, and a February sowing repeats them in spring; the trick is keeping the bed damp while they sprint, since a check in dry soil turns the roots hot and pithy. Thin to three inches and start pulling at golf ball size. Like carrots, they sweeten after a frost or two, and with ground that never freezes solid the fall rows pull straight through the winter salad season.
Varieties
Travis County names Hakurei, at 38 days, with Purple Top White Globe and Seven Top beside it; the state sheet adds White Globe, Royal Crown, Royal Globe, Tokyo Cross and White Lady. Hakurei is the variety that made the type famous, and there is little reason to stray.
In the kitchen
Eaten raw with salt or halved into the winter salads; glazed whole in butter with the greens wilted in at the end. Peeling is unnecessary and slightly insulting.