Many factors can cause turnips to break, split, or rot, including disease, irrigation concerns, and nutritional deficiencies. If you’re fortunate, you’ll find something wrong above soil before harvest and be able to fix it.
When you examine the leaves and stems, everything appears to be fine, and you won’t realize there’s a problem until it’s too late. This article will teach you how to spot problems in your crop and how to avoid them.
Turnip Growing Problems
There are two kinds of problems that can ruin your turnip plant and they are pests and diseases. Now let’s treat them one after the other.
Diseases of Turnip
They are two agents of diseases that affect turnips growth negatively and they are fungal and viral.
Fungal Diseases of Turnip
1) Alternaria leaf spot (Blackspot, Gray spot) Alternaria spp.
Leaves with little dark dots that become brown to gray; Lesions can be circular or angular, with a purple-black edge; they can form concentric rings, become brittle, and split in the center; and they can produce dark brown extended lesions on stems and petioles.
During cool, wet weather, this could be an issue. Plant only pathogen-free seed; rotate crops; and, if the disease is prevalent, apply suitable fungicides.
2) Anthracnose Colletotrichum higginisianum
Dry spots on leaves that are small, round, or oddly shaped and range in color from gray to straw; a huge proportion of spots can force the leaf to perish. Lesions may cluster into big necrotic patches, causing yellowing and wilting of plants; lesions may break or crack in dry areas; dry sunken spots on roots that expand and turn gray or brown.
The fungus overwinters on leaf litter and associated weeds, with moist, warm circumstances favoring disease onset. Disease control requires hygienic methods, such as treating seeds with hot water before planting, rotating crops, planting in a location with good soil drainage, and removing all cruciferous weeds that could serve as storage for the fungus.
Viral Diseases of Turnip
1) Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV)
Necrotic patches on leaves; vein clearing and chlorosis in mature leaves; black spots and brown necrotic stripes on stems; slowed plant development and yield losses.
Aphids, such as cabbage aphids and peach aphids, spread the disease. Reflective mulches may aid to discourage aphid feeding, and insecticide sprays may help to prevent secondary viral spread.
Pests of Turnip
1) Wireworms Aeolus spp.
Seedlings die; the stand is decreased; the stems are girdled and the crowns are white; When digging around the stem, wireworm larvae can be discovered in the dirt. The larvae are tiny, yellow-brown worms with lustrous skin.
Based on the species, the larval stage might last anywhere from one to five years. If wireworms are confirmed to be available in the soil, let the field fallow throughout the summer and till often to minimize numbers; rotate to a non-host crop if possible; prevent planting sensitive crops after a wireworm outbreak on cereals.
2) Root maggots Delia spp.
Scars and eating holes on turnip surface; root destruction may be substantial; larvae are white or white-yellow, attain a length of about 1 cm (0.3 in), and taper towards the head; the adult insect is a little fly that looks like a housefly. Root maggots kill all cruciferous plants, and the insect overwinters in the soil as pupae.
Avoid growing root crops in the same location the next year if root maggots were a nuisance. Detach and eliminate all agricultural debris if crops are too extensively ruined to harvest.
Floating row coverings can drastically reduce crop damage by prohibiting female flies from laying eggs; however, row covers are only functional in the absence of root maggots. In the United States, there are now no insecticides approved for use against root maggots in the home garden.
Conclusion
I hope you find this article helpful. I would like to hear from you about the turnips growing problems. Let me know if you have any questions about growing your turnips.
