Golden Ball

Golden Ball is a European (temperate) open-pollinated turnip variety sold by several Indian seed companies for the hill and late-rabi market, one of the oldest named heirloom turnip types still in commercial seed catalogues. It is distinguished from the more common white European types by its round root with a golden-yellow skin and yellow flesh, which carries a noticeably sweeter, milder, less pungent flavour — a trait many growers and cooks specifically prefer. Like other European types it needs sustained real cold to develop this flavour and firmness properly, and keeps reasonably well in storage compared with any Asiatic (desi) turnip.

Plant typeOpen-pollinated
Maturity60–70 days
Yield potential22–28 t/ha
Disease resistanceNo special resistance claimed; open-pollinated
SoilLoam
SeasonRabi

• Sowing timeOctober to December in the northern plains; much of the growing season in the hills
• Seed rate3–4 kg/ha
• SpacingRows 35–45 cm apart; plants thinned to 10–12 cm apart in the row

Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.

• Himachal Pradesh
• Uttarakhand
• Uttar Pradesh

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• Pusa Chandrima

  An IARI Asiatic variety with attractive purple-topped, white-based roots and good early vigour, suited to an early rabi sowing in the plains.

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• Pusa Kanchan

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• Purple Top White Globe

  A long-established European (temperate) open-pollinated variety, widely sold by Indian seed companies, with a globe-shaped root — white below, purple-red where the shoulder is exposed to light — prized for its firm texture and sweeter flavour after cool weather.

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• Snowball

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