Seed Savers Exchange Turnip Comparison Trial

Hill Creek Farm is part of Seed Savers Exchange’s M-GEN plant trial network.  Earlier this year, we tried out a promising snow pea and this fall, we are evaluating 4 different turnips.

The “standard” in our trial is ‘Purple Top White Globe Turnip‘. It’s a commerical variety that most people picture when they think of turnips.  The 3 varieties we are comparing to ‘Purple Top White Globe’ are ‘Snowball’ (which I have grown before and really liked), ‘Purple Top Strap Leaf’ and ‘Milan Early Red Top’.

I was disappointed that my favorite turnip, ‘Gilfeather‘ was not included in this collection, but there is some discussion as to whether ‘Gilfeather’ is a turnip, a rutabaga, or a turnip/rutabaga cross.  Seed Savers is all about seed purity (which is always a challenge when dealing with brassicas!), so most likely, they chose turnips that they knew were turnips.

The following photos, requested of all of this year’s turnip growers, are of the entire turnip planting, then a “group photo” of each variety and a “single photo” of each variety.   A ruler is included in each photo so that measurements can be made between different growers’ photos.

These turnips are ready to harvest (but will keep in the ground until frost and beyond) — if you would like to purchase any of them, just e-mail me and I’ll pull some out for you!