GROWING TURNIPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 39, 25 November 1937, Page 8

GROWING TURNIPS

FOR WINTER PROVISION. FIRM SEED-BED REQUIRED. Some 450,000 acres of turnips and swedes are grown in New Zealand each year. The greater part of this area is used for producing winter feed, but some is also grown for the dry summer and autumn period for dairy cows, or maintenance feed. When successfully grown, turnips provide a large amount of valuable j feed and could the crop always he depended on, many ol iho difficulties! of providing feed during periods of grass shortage would disappear. The factors which make turnips to some extent an unreliable crops arc “dubvoot” in high rainfall areas; aphis and diamond-back moth attack during dry periods in the summer and autumn; “brown heart,” “dry rot,” and the ravages of the night-flying brown beetle during November and early December. Owing to the number of failures during tlm past five or six years, there is a tendency to grow fewer turnips and greater attention. is being given to crops such as kale and chou moellier. Early Cultivation. It cannot he too strongly stressed that early ploughing, preparation of a fallowed seed bed, correct fertilising and sowing' at the right time will offset to a considerable, extent the ravages of insect pests aiid fungus diseases, and help to ensure a satisfactory crop even under adverse climatic conditions. A firm, fine seed bed developed by fallow cultivation is the first essential for «a successful crop. A loose seed bed dries out quickly resulting in a slow establishment and, in addition, it is difficult to avoid drilling the seed too deeply. The seed is drilled on a rolled siirface at the rate of 8-10 ounces or more per acre in 14-inch rows. (Sowing 10.12 ounces in 7-inch rows is good practice on light land. A seeding of up to lib per. acre will produce a thick stand of small bulbs and if the crop is too thick a stroke with the harrows across the drilling can he recommended. The seed should he drilled with, a phosphatic fertiliser, but not with, straight superphosphate which, under dry soil conditions injures the germination capacity of the seed. A germination mixture of equal parts of superphosphate and lime is best. The mixture can be applied up to a rate of 6cwt per acre on heavy land dr 2cwt per aero on light land. Lime anti super aro best mixed on a floor and turned two or three times at intervals of at least two or three hours between each mixing. The heap can. .he left on the floor overnight and bagged next day. Such bagged material will not set even though left in the bags for weeks. Where swedes and turnips are likely to he affected with “brown heart” berated super should bo used in place of superphosphate in the above mixtures. “Brown-heart” is a disease due to a deficiency of boron in the soil and is most readily controlled by using borated super. When turnips are required for early autumn feed, the land should be ploughed in May and the seed sown in late October or November according to the locality. White fleshed turnips are usually grown for this purpose. When sown early, it should be the aim to have the crop well advanced by the time the brown beetle is plentiful, which is some time in November to early December, according to the weather and the district. Sowing may continue till the end of January. Feeding Off. When early varieties are sown for summer feed, the crop will be ready for grazing toward the end of January. The crop lias a longer grazing period than rape, and there is not the same need to make successive sowings; but where large acreages are grown, this practice may he desirable with the early varieties. The crop should he fed off in breaks, and the same precautions taken to avoid worm infestation from the run off as recommended for rape. Turnips are not such a good fattening crop as rape and for fattening purposes should always he supplemented with good hay or oat sheaf chaff and salt.