A Detailed Guide to Turnip Planting Time and Management Key Points
The turnip is a vegetable similar in appearance to the radish, often used for pickling sauerkraut, making feed, and serving as a food staple in high-altitude cold mountain areas. In the minds of the people of Xinjiang, the turnip is an excellent food that nourishes the body, protects the lungs, and strengthens health, and it is rich in certain nutrients. Below, let us take a look together at Turnip Planting Time and Management Key Points.
I. Turnip Planting Time
From August through September is the most suitable time for sowing turnips and raising seedlings, which is to say that planting can be carried out each year during the transition between summer and autumn. The variety Wenling kohlrabi may be selected, with a seeding rate of 150 grams per mu for direct sowing and 25 to 50 grams for seedling raising.
II. Turnip Planting Management Key Points
1. Soil requirements
The field plot for planting kohlrabi should have deep soil layers, convenient drainage and irrigation, and fertile soil, with sandy loam being preferable. Kohlrabi can be direct-sown or raised as seedlings, but is generally mainly raised as seedlings.
2. Key points for raising seedlings
When raising seedlings, first prepare the seedbed carefully; sowing 250 to 400 grams per mu of seedbed can provide enough seedlings for 10 to 15 mu of field planting. After sowing, cover with rice straw or a shade net, and remove it after the seedlings emerge. About 10 days after emergence, thin the seedlings once, with a spacing of 6 to 8 cm, and apply one topdressing of dilute manure. To prevent aphids and viral diseases in the seedlings, starting from the first leaf stage, spray a 1500-fold solution of Yibianjing once every 7 to 10 days. During the seedling-raising period, keep the seedbed soil constantly moist and prevent it from becoming too dry, so as not to affect root growth.
3. Transplanting
After the previous crop in the field is harvested, carry out 30 cm deep cultivation, and apply 3000 kg of decomposed irrigation fertilizer, 30 kg of superphosphate, and 15 kg of potassium chloride or 30 kg of ternary compound fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer. Make beds 1.3 to 1.5 m wide. The seedling age should be about 35 days and should not be too long. When transplanting, open holes with a row spacing and plant spacing of 35 cm square, planting about 5000 plants per mu. When planting, take care to bury the seedling's taproot straight in the hole; first place in some fine soil, then lift the seedling slightly upward so that the root is straightened, so as not to affect root elongation and thickening, and then press down lightly and water thoroughly. If drought occurs, water once a day; after 5 to 6 days the seedlings will survive and resume growth.
4. Management key points
10 to 15 days after planting, apply 750 to 1000 kg of decomposed dilute human and animal manure as topdressing, and apply another topdressing after 10 more days. From late October to early November, when the fleshy root of kohlrabi enters the period of vigorous growth, apply one heavy fertilizer, using 1500 kg of decomposed human and animal manure or 15 kg of urea plus 20 kg of ternary compound fertilizer per mu. Before fertilizing, first cultivate and loosen the soil, and apply the fertilizer between the rows. In dry weather, water once 2 days after fertilizing to promote dissolution of the fertilizer for root absorption. During the growth period, clean the ditches and earth up 1 to 2 times to prevent the roots from being exposed and turning green, becoming coarse and old, and affecting quality. Control pests such as cabbage caterpillars, aphids, and tobacco cutworms. Remove yellow leaves at any time to facilitate ventilation and light penetration. From December, harvesting can begin successively. The harvest standard is when the plant stems and leaves wither and yellow, the root head turns from green to yellow, and small leaves in the leaf axils curl and turn yellow. After frost, the quality of kohlrabi improves, but if harvested too late, the hard core becomes large and the fleshy root fibers develop, causing processing quality to decline.