Turnips are a versatile cool-season crop that thrives when temperatures are moderate, making them a natural fit for Georgia’s mild climate. Achieving a successful harvest of both tender greens and sweet roots relies heavily on precise seeding timing to avoid intense heat, which can ruin the crop. Understanding the specific planting windows allows gardeners to maximize the benefits of the state’s long growing season.
Fall Planting: The Main Season in Georgia
The autumn growing season offers the most reliable and rewarding window for planting turnips across the state. This period naturally provides the cool soil and air temperatures that promote robust root development and sweet leaf production. The optimal time for seeding begins in late August and extends through October, with a focus on ensuring the plants mature before a hard freeze.
Gardeners should aim to sow seeds approximately eight to ten weeks before the average first expected frost date in their specific area. This timing allows the roots to reach a desirable size and the foliage to fully develop. Succession planting, which involves sowing small batches of seeds every two to three weeks within this window, is recommended. This strategy ensures a continuous supply of fresh, tender turnips rather than a single, overwhelming harvest.
Spring Planting: Challenges and Early Start
While the fall crop is generally superior, spring planting is possible if done quickly to beat the summer heat. This narrow window requires an extremely early start to ensure roots mature before May, when Georgia’s intense warmth begins. Seeding must occur as soon as the soil is workable, often in late January or February, especially in the central and southern parts of the state.
The primary challenge for a spring crop is the risk of bolting, where the plant prematurely sends up a flower stalk in response to high temperatures. Once a turnip bolts, the root quality rapidly declines, becoming woody and bitter. The entire crop must be harvested before consistently hot temperatures in the upper 80s arrive. Spring planting is inherently riskier and generally yields smaller roots compared to the fall season.
Adjusting Timing for Georgia’s Diverse Climate Zones
Georgia’s significant variation in geography requires adjusting the general planting windows to suit the local climate. The state can be divided into three general zones: the cooler North Georgia mountains, the central Piedmont region, and the warmer Coastal/South Georgia plain. Gardeners in the northern mountains (Zones 6b–7a) must start their fall crop earlier, typically in early to mid-August, due to earlier frost dates.
The central Piedmont region (Zones 7b–8a) adheres closely to the standard late August through September planting window. Conversely, those in the Coastal Plain and South Georgia (Zones 8b–9a) can delay seeding until late September or even October. The warmer southern climate allows the growing season to stretch well into the winter, offering a longer harvest period and the possibility of mild winter production.
Harvesting Timeline and Indicators
Turnips are a fast-maturing crop, typically ranging between 40 to 60 days from seeding to harvest, depending on the variety and growing conditions. Turnip greens, which are highly prized, can be thinned and harvested as early as five weeks after planting. When harvesting the greens, take only the outer leaves, allowing the inner leaves to continue feeding the developing root.
The roots should be pulled when they reach a size between a golf ball and a tennis ball, or roughly two to three inches in diameter. Allowing them to grow much larger risks the roots becoming tough, woody, and less palatable. A benefit of the fall crop is that exposure to a light frost, where temperatures dip just below freezing, improves the root’s flavor by converting starches into sweeter sugars.