GardenTurnip variety
Purple Top White Globe Turnip
✓ In your garden
Purple Top White Globe is a purple to white purple top turnip, ready in about 50 days. Roast or mash the sweet-peppery roots and cook the tender tops like greens — two crops in one. Turnips like cool weather; sow directly in spring or late summer and thin the seedlings. Fall roots, sweetened by frost, are the best.
“A fast, mild root — and the tops are good eating too.”
Growing basics — shared by every turnip
Purple Top White Globe grows like any other turnip. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Turnip page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 2–4 in
- Row spacing
- 12–18 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25–0.5 in
- Soil pH
- 6–7.5
- Water
- Moderate
What is Purple Top White Globe good for?
- Roasting & mashingSweetens with heat. Great
- Raw & slawsCrisp and mild picked young. Great
- The greensCook the tops like mustard greens. Great
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
—
Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Purple Top White Globe in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around mid May, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- late Mar – early Apr
- Growing
- early Apr – mid May
- Picking
- mid May – late May
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
Growing Purple Top White Globe — the things that trip people up
- Turnips grow fast in cool weather — sow in early spring and again in late summer for a fall crop. Thin the seedlings so the roots have room, and pull them young and small for the sweetest, most tender roots.
- A fall crop caught by light frost is the sweetest of all; heat and age make roots woody and strong-flavored.
Purple Top White Globe turnip at a glance
| Type | Purple Top |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 50 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Purple, White |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
Save it and the plant lights up — kept right here in your browser, no account needed. It's the first thing GardenTrack starts remembering for you.
Kept on this device. Want it safe if your browser clears or you switch phones? Back it up free — just your email, no password.
GardenTrack is in beta now — it'll remember every plant you add here and tell you what to do and when. One email, no spam.
Common questions about Purple Top White Globe
How long does Purple Top White Globe take to grow?
About 50 days from sowing — turnips are a quick crop, and the greens are ready even sooner.
Can I eat the Purple Top White Globe tops?
Yes — turnip greens are a Southern staple, cooked like mustard or collard greens. Some types are grown mainly for the tops.
Browse more turnip varieties →