Trouble growing turnips for the past 3 years

[BayouMan]

I love to add turnips in my food plots as extra forage for the deer, but I especially love harvesting them for my own consumption. Hard to beat a good pork gravy with turnips!
My problem for the last 3-4 years, is the greens start to get about 2-3” tall and then just totally disappear! Used to get buckets full of turnips and the greens!
Am I depleting some critical nutrients after so many good years? This is happening in all of our food plots on a 740 lease!

 

[MossRoad]

Check with your local county extension office to see if there's some disease going around.

 

[workinonit]

And I can tell you if your soil gets too acidic it will do exactly what you describe.

 

[old and tired]

My guess... you have something eating them!!! Put a fence around some of them... For me everything outside the fence is mowed down (once the critters find out where to get a free meal).

 

[jyoutz]

My guess... you have something eating them!!! Put a fence around some of them... For me everything outside the fence is mowed down (once the critters find out where to get a free meal).

I think that is most likely. A soil nutrient or water deficiency will result in the plants slowly fading, not just disappearing.

 

[BnRidge]

A couple of things I had to do here. Ph was a limiter for germination and later greening up and growth. Either the seeds wouldn't germinate, or if they did, the seedlings would get a couple inches high and then sit there with no growth. That doesn't quite sound like what you are experiencing though - these wouldn't disappear, they just wouldn't grow. Also, once the deer found out, some years I had to put an electric fence up to keep the deer out. They could take an otherwise healthy looking crop down to nothing. It really was satisfying after a couple years of failure to see hoof prints at the electric fence, then none thereafter.

 

[LD1]

If you are concerned about your soil, have a soil test done. Not sure where you are.....but around here....local extension office and like $10 or so gets you a comprehensive analysis.

Without it...and without knowing the PH....any money you spend on fert maybe simply be a waste. It is the ONLY way to know for sure what your soil needs.

But I agree with others.....it's likely something eating it. Bugs, disease, or animals.

Are there any tracks? Set a game camera up on the plot

 

[jyoutz]

A couple of things I had to do here. Ph was a limiter for germination and later greening up and growth. Either the seeds wouldn't germinate, or if they did, the seedlings would get a couple inches high and then sit there with no growth. That doesn't quite sound like what you are experiencing though - these wouldn't disappear, they just wouldn't grow. Also, once the deer found out, some years I had to put an electric fence up to keep the deer out. They could take an otherwise healthy looking crop down to nothing. It really was satisfying after a couple years of failure to see hoof prints at the electric fence, then none thereafter.

I’m surprised that an electric fence worked for you. I tried several electric fence designs for my garden and orchard. None worked and I ended up building a solid 8’ woven wire fence.

 

[oosik]

After about six years we gave up with the family garden. The normal garden things grew great and then - gone. We have just too many local "foragers" that would not share. The final straw was when we watched the adult raccoons send the young out the smaller branches on our fruit trees. They would pull the apples off and drop them to the ground for all those waiting.

Now I grow acorn and butternut squash in two round planters. They have a wire mesh bottom with Miracle Grow added to the native soil. So far, nothing has bothered these plants.

 

[MossRoad]

... So far, nothing has bothered these plants.

Because they are squash! BLECH!


Just kidding. Many people enjoy squash, however, it's one of the very few things I do not enjoy. Squash and sweet potatoes. Yuck.

 

[oosik]

Along with the "normal" garden stuff - we grew - - parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, kohlrabi. I'm particularly fond of parsnips and kohlrabi. Turnips & rutabagas were dropped after the first year. We added zucchini to replace them.

The local "foragers" must have thought it was mana from Heaven.

 

[jyoutz]

I built a 8’ woven wire fence around my orchard and garden, with chicken wire at the bottom extending into the ground. Now I have no animal issues except for birds. And birds aren’t too much of a problem.

 

[3gunr]

Turnips if planted year after year will deplete soil nutrients, If this is food plots i would rotate in clover for a few yrs , That will put nitrogen back in the soil. I have had this same issue .

 

[Bill Guenthner]

I think that is most likely. A soil nutrient or water deficiency will result in the plants slowly fading, not just disappearing.

Probably both. Whatever is eating them now was eating them before but they were able to regrow faster. Any time you take anything off the land you have to put it back, whether that’s nitrogen or calcium or anything else. 12-12-12 is your friend, and lime if you have acidic soil.

 

[jyoutz]

Probably both. Whatever is eating them now was eating them before but they were able to regrow faster. Any time you take anything off the land you have to put it back, whether that’s nitrogen or calcium or anything else. 12-12-12 is your friend, and lime if you have acidic soil.

We have alkaline soils so lime would make things worse. In areas with highly alkaline soils people add sulfur to increase acidity. I don’t have to do that; my soils are only slightly alkaline.

 

[spruce Deere]

The place where I bought my collards seed, they say to rotate Growing out of collards two to three years.

But sounds like deer or something has figgered out you are planting good viddles

 

[MIbowhunter]

Check with your local county extension office to see if there's some disease going around.

Agree. Brassicas grown in the same spot multiple yrs can create air pockets in the soil and invite disease. Try rotating a different crop (not brassicas) for a yr and see if it helps. I would put in some clover or rye for one season. Hope it helps.

 

[kneedeep]

Planting too thick, turnips need room to ‘make’ a root.