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I want to grow some swedes for the first time next year.  They belong to the brassica family.  Does this mean I will have to protect them from pigeons?

Not if they are like Turnips in which case it is flea beetle that could be your worst enemy - they wrote off two sowing of turnips for me!

Iain

Simple answer - yes. I didnt do mine and all the leaves were stripped. No leaves - no swedes ...

Derekthefox :D

Can't really answer your question, thought you might be interested in today's article in Daily Mail:-

Swede dreams: Chris Beardshaw in the Daily Mail….
“This hardy vegetable makes a warming dish

THE HUMBLE Swede is a much-maligned winter vegetable….  These days I am hooked on it. The peppery taste and creamy texture of the firmly mashed flesh (at its best after just ten minutes of gentle simmering) is the perfect accompaniment to winter stews and roasts.

Hearty, warming and beautifully simple to prepare, it is a traditional Scottish staple, and goes well with haggis and a whisky shot. Simply dice and boil equal quantities of potatoes and swede in separate pans until just tender. Drain and mash together enthusiastically, add salt and pepper to taste, a splash of cream, and even a handful of sliced chives. Mix well, whip into a frenzy until creamy then serve while still warm. To enliven the Christmas meal, add a dash of Whisky before serving.

Swede is as easy to cultivate as it is to grow.
The swollen roots will sit happily in ground turned to stone by frost, providing fresh produce from now right the way through until spring - simply lift the root when the ground is soft.

For those with especially wet, heavy soils, try lifting a few roots now, topping and tailing them to prevent rot and then storing them in a cool dark shed or glasshouse. Alternatively, leave the roots in the ground until spring when fresh leaves can be harvested and steamed like spinach; just remember to protect the tops from marauding pigeons and rabbits.

All this from a thin spring sowing of seeds, 2cm deep and 20cm apart on any reasonably fertile soil in a little sunshine. Like all root vegetables, the swede is a hungry crop and requires plenty of organic matter in the form of well-rotted farmyard manure. Applying the manure just before sowing, however, can result in fleshy tortured roots, so dig in the matter now and leave for a couple of months before sowing in spring.

WHILE most gardeners maintain that spring sowing is necessary, I am always tempted to sow throughout the year. After all there’s plenty of room in the glasshouse over the winter,
and if you keep the temperature at just over 7c, conditions are perfect for germination.

Sow individually in a soil-based compost in modules - swede desperately dislikes root disturbance. Germination takes seven to ten days and as the plants grow, space them as for outdoor crops, potting on as required. These plants will either provide fresh greens or can be transplanted under cloches as outdoor conditions improve.

Plenty of varieties are available. In general, they are divided into three categories based on their colour. Green tops tend to be slow maturing and are ideal for a long term crop; bronze tops mature slightly faster, and the purple tops are the fastest and heaviest cropping.

Just in case someone tries to convince you that there is no difference between a swede and a turnip, don’t believe them. While they both belong to the Brassica (cabbage) family, the turnip, Brassica campestris, is predominantly a summer and autumn crop, while the swede, Brassica napus, is best pulled after midwinter.

They certainly share characteristics, but the swede is thought to be a hybrid between the turnip and the cabbage, originating in 17th-century Sweden - hence the name.”

Excellent extract sussexcliff .... I certainly agree on the quality of the vegetable, it is also a favourite of my daughter. Mashed with butter, a splash of milk and black pepper is our traditional method. The first ones will be pulled for Christmas dinner ...

Derekthefox :D

Yep great stuff sussexcliff.

By the way, and in case you didn't know, swede and rutabaga are the same thing.

Traditional scottish fare my nether regions!    Swede's are a very poor relation to the far more creamy texture and colour of  a decent turnip........... ;)

Iain

My college lecturer in botany, who had a Ph.D. in the subject, did mention that swedes are truly swollen stems, not roots as Chris Beardshaw states. I'm not sure who Chris Beardshaw is, although I have seen his name here frequently, other than being a TV personality, but I will stick with my lecturers comments until proven otherwise. Besides being possibly pedantic it does however tie in with his comments about propagation in modules as there will be no consequent issue with forked roots.
Perhaps not relevant for the U.K. but I sow mine on the summer solstice. An easy date to remember and it stops the stems getting too big by harvest time.
They were definitely part of the Scottish side of my families traditional fare and Newfoundland, largely settled by Scots, is the production area for swedes (a.k.a. Swedish rutabagas) for the North American continent (not much else grows up there anyway!).

Is there really any significant difference between the varieties taste wise?

Swedes are certainly traditional Scottish fare except that until relatively recently we called them turnips! They have a stronger flavour than "real" turnips and are traditional with haggis and also as part of Scotch Broth.

Also they are still about, whereas all my turnips have been finished for months. I think they are pretty hardy.

I thought the idea of them being a swollen stem is interesting since that would be like kohl rabi except that kohl rabi grows above ground whereas turnip is mostly buried.

One of my favourite references to Swedes was when the Scottish football team lost (again) to Sweden. The newspaper headline read:
Swedes 2 Turnips 0!  ;)

I'm going to try turnips nexy season! For the second year my swedes all rotted in the ground, tops were stripped by pigeons,  :'( so I'm admitting defeat and going to attempt turnips. Begin to think ignorance is bliss, my first ever crop was great! Things have detiorated since I've been making more effort... ::)

I find swedes far more sweeter and less peppery than turnips.. They are one of the best veg on the lotty.they stay in ground in frost etc  and are just dug when needed..
I wouldn,t  transplant them as they don't like root disturbance . This was considered taboo a few years ago with root crops like swedes,carrots and parsnips but today it seems a lot do it successfully..  But they are easy to grow, just set a row out  thin out and use small ones then leave others to grow on to big ones.Don,t fresh manure prior to planting, this tends to make em fork as with any root crop ..
I used to  treat row prior to planting with a weak mix of Jeye's fluid but as the EEC in their wisdom said it wern,t for gardens I wouldn't dream of doing it now (ahem)     ;)  But  it did seem to keep the root fly and beetle at bay...which is the case for them rotting in the middle usually..
Pigeons will eat them as young plants so You need a bit of wire netting etc bent over the row to keep em off... A good variety is Marianne or Marian which ever way it is spelled..Theres nothing much better than tattie and swede mixed and mashed together...Jim
..

OK, am even sadder now, Jim!! I did all that, sowed direct, forgot covering though, and still mush, looked like woodlouse had caused alot of damage, could they have done? Thanks.

Lottie, I wouldnt think woodlice would bother healthy swedes..Prob the beetle or some other nasty had eaten right through middle.   Or maybe clubroot, they are succeptible to this... and this can make em rot .. then the woodlice had moved in ...Jim

At the shops here the long ones are labelled as turnips and the round ones are labelled as swedes.

In my organic catalogue I only have turnip 'japanese' and the 'purple top'(both are round).  I love the purple top roasted but ordered the japanese one as it can be sown all year round.  

I started a few in seedling trays but when I transplanted them they disappeard in a couple of days!!  Last weekend I sowed a row & thought I had done it thinly, but a couple days later I have got 'very many' (not hundreds because there was only 200 seeds in the pack, but it looks like hundreds!!) sprouted already packed next to each other.  This time I have put the snail & slug pellets & hope it will do the trick.  I will need to thin them soon.

Did someone write that they can only be planted in certain seasons?

Anna

I agree with you about swedes being an excellent vegetable growmore ... unfortunately they seem to take a lot more effort than my other favourite vegetables - onions, carrots and leeks. Having kept the pigeons away with copious netting, they never seem to get to any size, certainly not the sizes I am used to seeing down our market ... If they are as big as an apple then I am thrilled.

Derekthefox :D

QuoteBegin to think ignorance is bliss, my first ever crop was great! Things have detiorated since I've been making more effort...

I think this is true of many things. The archer who tries to hit the target will miss.

Is it definitely pigeons BTW? Mine get cabbage white caterpillars - swedes being brassicas n' that...

Parsnips, Swede, Turnip, Carrots , Potatoes, celery and a bit of skirting beef. Perfect lobby. YUMMY  ;D

The_Snail

My dad's eyes would light up if he heard you Snail ... he says he can't get a decent lob scouse down here in Coventry ...

Just for your interest ...

http://www.by-the-sea.com/articles/lobscouse.html

Derekthefox :D

OK then this season, think I'm just going to bung things in, water once, then retire to the bench, don me shades pour a glass of wine and wait til harvest time, but it's best ever......

Ah you have been reading those gardening magazines again eh Lottie ...

Derekthefox :D