How to Grow Rutabaga

On this page
  1. Rutabaga (Brassica napus Napobrassica Group)
  2. Companion Planting
  3. Quick Facts
  4. At a Glance
  5. Soil & Growing Conditions
  6. Growth Stages
  7. Harvest & Storage
  8. Diseases
  9. Pests
  10. Nutrient Issues
  11. Swede, Seedling to Root
  12. Plan your Rutabaga planting
  13. Growing Rutabaga in another region
  14. Sources
  15. Frequently Asked Questions

Sow rutabaga once soil temperature reaches 15.6°C.

The short answer

Site
soil pH 6–6.5
Biggest risk
Club root

Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.

Rutabaga (Brassica napus Napobrassica Group)

Tiny swede seedlings at the cotyledon stage in a labelled seed tray — “-2020-06-25 Swede seedlings (Brassica napus subsp. rapifera), Trimingham” by Kolforn is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons

9 sources cited · Verified

Companion Planting

avoid shared disease

Brassica oleracea Capitata Group

Both crops are documented hosts of Club root. These pathogens persist in soil for many years -- RHS gives up to 20 years for club root resting spores, at least 15 years for allium white rot sclerotia, and advises a five-year gap before replanting onions or shallots after downy mildew -- so the two…

avoid shared disease

Raphanus sativus

Both crops are documented hosts of Club root. These pathogens persist in soil for many years -- RHS gives up to 20 years for club root resting spores, at least 15 years for allium white rot sclerotia, and advises a five-year gap before replanting onions or shallots after downy mildew -- so the two…

avoid shared disease

Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group

Both crops are documented hosts of Club root. These pathogens persist in soil for many years -- RHS gives up to 20 years for club root resting spores, at least 15 years for allium white rot sclerotia, and advises a five-year gap before replanting onions or shallots after downy mildew -- so the two…

avoid shared disease

Brassica rapa Rapifera Group

Both crops are documented hosts of Club root. These pathogens persist in soil for many years -- RHS gives up to 20 years for club root resting spores, at least 15 years for allium white rot sclerotia, and advises a five-year gap before replanting onions or shallots after downy mildew -- so the two…

avoid shared disease

Brassica oleracea Italica Group

Plasmodiophora brassicae produces resting spores that contaminate the soil and remain viable for many years, so any brassica following an infected crop is re-infected from the ground itself. Keep every brassica -- including radish, swede and turnip, which gardeners often forget are brassicas --…

avoid shared disease

Brassica oleracea Acephala Group

Plasmodiophora brassicae produces resting spores that contaminate the soil and remain viable for many years, so any brassica following an infected crop is re-infected from the ground itself. Keep every brassica -- including radish, swede and turnip, which gardeners often forget are brassicas --…

avoid shared disease

Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group

Plasmodiophora brassicae produces resting spores that contaminate the soil and remain viable for many years, so any brassica following an infected crop is re-infected from the ground itself. Keep every brassica -- including radish, swede and turnip, which gardeners often forget are brassicas --…

Quick Facts

Factor Value
Soil pH 6 - 6.5
Germination temp 15.6°C
Optimal growing temp 14-24°C
Minimum survivable temp -1°C
Soil texture RHS: "moist but free-draining, fertile soil" in an "open, sunny site".
Drainage RHS: moist but free-draining.

At a Glance

Brassica napus Napobras… Swede Club root Cabbage root fly (US: c… Cabbage caterpillars DISEASES PESTS

Soil & Growing Conditions

Water: RHS: "Water young swede plants regularly until well rooted. Then aim to keep the soil evenly moist by watering during dry spells". Clemson (whose turnip factsheet also covers rutabaga): "Watering is critical during the seedling stage and the root development stage"; keep "the soil moist but not saturated".

Soil pH range

6 6.5

Span reflects genuine variation between the cited authorities, not a single agreed figure.

Growth Stages

Stage BBCH Notes
Sowing & germination 0 Sow 2cm deep, rows 38cm apart. RHS.
Thinning 3 Thin seedlings to 20-25cm apart once large enough to handle. RHS.
Root development 4 Slow growing, taking up to six months to mature from sowing. RHS.
Harvest & storage 8 Usually ready from early autumn onward; can be left in the ground into winter, some varieties holding to January. In colder regions, protect in situ with straw, cloches or fleece, or lift in late autumn and store in moist sand in a frost-free shed. RHS.

Harvest & Storage

When to pick: RHS: lift "as baby veg after only a few weeks, as young roots about 5cm (2in) in diameter or, more usually, when 10-15cm (4-6in) across". Clemson gives a specific rutabaga (swede) benchmark: "Start harvesting rutabagas when they reach the size of a softball (3 to 4 inches in diameter)" -- larger than the 10-15cm RHS figure but of the same order.

Storage

Clemson: "These roots store well in plastic bags in the refrigerator or a cold root cellar". RHS: store in "containers of moist sand or peat-free potting compost in a frost-free shed or garage".

Diseases

Plasmodiophora brassicae

RHS names swedes explicitly among club root hosts.

Pests

Cabbage root fly (US: cabbage maggot)

Delia radicum

RHS names swede explicitly; root crops are "ruined when white maggots, up to 9 mm long, tunnel into the edible parts".

Cabbage caterpillars

Pieris brassicae; Pieris rapae; Pieris napi; Mamestra brassicae; Plutella xylostella

Covered by the RHS phrase "All edible brassicas".

Nutrient Issues

Boron (B)

deficiency

Correction

RHS symptom in swede: "Discoloured flesh or rotting hearts in swedes, turnips and celeriac". Boron is "less available in alkaline soils (above pH 7)". Correction: test soil pH and avoid liming already-alkaline soil; short term, fritted trace elements containing boron before sowing or planting.

Plan your Rutabaga planting

Timing for Rutabaga follows soil temperature and frost, not the calendar date. The Global vegetable planting calendar explains the method. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.

Growing Rutabaga in another region

Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.

Sources

These source is specific to this region. The full list of 9 sources behind this guide (Clemson Cooperative Extension, FAO EcoCrop, Royal Horticultural Society and others) is in the references of our UK guide to swede; they describe the plant itself, which is the same wherever it grows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What soil pH does swede need?

A pH of about 6–6.5. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.

What problems affect swede?

Our data links 1 disease and 2 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.

Plan next season before the problems start

This page gives you the thresholds; the planner turns them into your own calendar. It works from what you can observe and measure in your garden rather than from dates written for somebody else’s latitude.

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SoilCommander Editorial Team — under the direction of Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder

Every growing guide is checked against RHS, USDA Cooperative Extension, and other named horticultural authorities before publishing.

How this guide is put together

The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against international horticultural research and extension sources. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.

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Last verified 2026-08-06

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Top tips for October
  • Plant garlic before hard frosts
  • Protect late salads with fleece
  • Store squash somewhere dry
  • Mulch empty beds
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