"Whatsit" Turnip

Brassica rapa Origin: Unknown Improvement status: Cultivar Seeds per packet: ~250 Germination tested 10/2024: 96% Life cycle: Biennial This mystery turnip seed comes to us from our friend Chris Homanics of Head, Hands, Heart Nursery and Seed in Washington. Normally, if a grower came to us and said "I have seeds for a turnip, but I don't know what turnip," we would probably say, "No thanks." But when it's Chris Homanics, we say, "OK, tell us more."We'll let Chris pick up the story:"A few years back, I was given some turnip seed from a friend. He believed it was a rare rutabaga-type root vegetable from Italy, but after growing it out, it became clear that this was something else. It also became clear that it was a high-quality staple turnip — so I let them go to seed and produced a seed crop. “Well, what is it?” you ask, and frankly I don’t know. I suspect that this may just be a good selection of American Purple Top White Globe turnip — the standard American turnip since at least 1885,