Do Deer Like Turnips? Yes — After the First Hard Frost

Deer largely ignore turnips until frost turns the starch to sugar. When to plant for that timing, and why the tops get eaten long before the bulbs.

By Zakaria September 17, 2026 4 min read Save to Pinterest

A dense field of forage turnips in full leaf under an overcast sky — Photo: Jonathan Clitheroe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Yes — but usually not until after the first hard frost. Before that, deer often walk straight past a turnip plot, which is why so many people conclude the planting failed a month before it works.

The short answer

Deer do eat turnips, but generally only after the first hard frost. Before frost the leaves are bitter with glucosinolates and a plot can sit untouched; frost converts stored starch to sugar, the bitterness falls away, and the same plot is stripped within days. Plant 60 to 90 days before the first expected frost — late July to mid August in much of the northern US and Canada. Deer take the tops first, which run 15 to 25 percent protein, and the bulbs later in winter once snow and frozen ground have removed the alternatives.

Frost is the switch. Starch becomes sugar, bitterness drops
Plant 60–90 days before first frost — late July to mid August in the north
Tops first, bulbs later — a two-stage food supply
Leaves run 15–25% protein; bulbs are winter energy
An untouched plot in September is normal, not a failure

Why the frost matters so much

Brassicas — turnips, rape, kale, radish — defend themselves with glucosinolates, which taste bitter. A deer with better options available takes the better options.

Cold changes the arithmetic. As temperatures drop the plant converts stored starch into sugars, both as antifreeze and as reserve. The bitterness falls, the sweetness rises, and the plot becomes one of the most attractive things in the landscape at precisely the moment most other food has gone.

This is the single most misunderstood thing about brassica plots: a plot ignored through September and early October is behaving exactly as expected.

Timing the planting

When to sow, by region

Region	Sow	Why
Northern US, Canada	Late July – mid August	60–90 days of growth before frost
Midwest, mid-Atlantic	Early – late August	Same target, later frost
South	Late August – early September	Frost arrives late; avoid sowing into summer heat

The target is a plant with good leaf mass and a developed bulb at the moment frost arrives.

Too late and you get small plants with nothing stored, which frost sweetens but barely feeds anyone
Too early and plants bolt in summer heat, or get grazed flat before a bulb forms
Turnips need 60 to 90 days; forage radish is faster, kale slower

Growing them

Soil pH 6.0 to 7.0. Brassicas hate acid soil and a test is worth more than any seed choice
Fertilise for leaf — nitrogen-forward at sowing, since the tops are most of the value
Sow shallow, about ¼ to ½ inch, into a firm seedbed. Turnip seed is small and easily buried too deep
Do not over-seed. Heavy rates give crowded plants and poor bulbs; follow the bag, usually a few pounds per acre
Rotate. Continuous brassicas build up club root and flea beetle pressure

Tops now, bulbs later

Two foods from one planting

	Tops	Bulbs
Eaten	Late autumn onward, repeatedly	Late winter, once other food is gone
Nutrition	15–25% protein	Energy-dense carbohydrate
Availability	Immediate, regrows after grazing	Needs diggable ground
Why it matters	Builds condition before winter	Carries deer through the hardest weeks

That two-stage supply is the real argument for turnips over a brassica that offers leaf alone. The plot keeps feeding after the leaves have been grazed off and snow has covered everything else.

If deer are not touching it

In order of likelihood:

Frost has not arrived. Wait. This is nearly always the answer.
A heavy acorn year. Mast beats brassicas every time, and a good oak year can delay a plot’s use by weeks.
The plot is too small or too exposed. Deer want cover nearby; a small plot in the open gets used at night if at all.
Wrong variety. Culinary turnips bred for human eating are not forage varieties — the seed sold for food plots is selected for leaf mass and bulb size.
Soil pH. Acid soil gives weak plants that never build the sugars worth walking to.
Too much pressure. Deer avoid ground where they have been disturbed.

Check the law before you plant

Planting food for deer counts as baiting in some jurisdictions and is restricted or prohibited during hunting seasons, with rules that vary by state, province and even county. Some areas also restrict feeding outright to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease, which concentrating deer makes worse.

Your state or provincial wildlife agency is the authority here, and the rules change.

Think twice near the garden

A food plot makes deer resident, and resident deer treat everything nearby as part of the same circuit.

Site it well away from the vegetable garden, ornamental beds and the house
Mind the road. Drawing deer toward a road is how a plot ends badly for everyone
Expect more deer generally, not just on the plot
If your actual goal is keeping deer out of a garden, a plot is the opposite of the tool you want — fencing is.

Common questions

Do deer like turnips?

They do, but usually not until after the first hard frost. Before frost the leaves are bitter with glucosinolates and deer often walk past a turnip plot entirely, which leads people to assume the planting failed. Frost converts stored starch to sugar, the bitterness drops, and the same plot that was ignored in September gets hammered in November. The tops are eaten first and the bulbs later, often once snow or hard ground has limited everything else.

When should I plant turnips for deer?

Roughly 60 to 90 days before the first expected frost, which is late July to mid August across much of the northern United States and Canada, and into early September further south. The aim is a plant with good leaf mass and a developed bulb at the point frost arrives. Planting too late gives small plants with nothing stored; planting too early gives plants that bolt or get grazed flat before they can build a bulb.

Why are deer not eating my turnips?

Almost always because frost has not arrived yet. Brassicas are bitter until cold weather converts starch to sugar, so a plot can sit untouched through September and early October and then be stripped within days of the first hard freeze. The other common reasons are abundant natural food such as a heavy acorn year, a plot that is too small to feel safe in, or planting a variety selected for human eating rather than for forage.

Do deer eat the turnip tops or the bulbs?

The tops first, by a wide margin, and the bulbs later. Leaves are the higher-protein part and are available immediately, so deer graze them repeatedly through late autumn. The bulbs become important in late winter, when snow cover and frozen ground have removed most alternatives — deer will dig them out of soft ground and the plot keeps feeding well after the leaves are gone. That two-stage supply is the main argument for turnips over other brassicas.

Are turnips good for deer nutritionally?

The leaves are genuinely high in protein, commonly in the 15 to 25 percent range, and the bulbs are energy-dense carbohydrate, which is exactly what deer need going into winter. The caution is that brassicas should be part of a varied plot programme rather than the whole of it: a pure brassica diet is not ideal, and deer in most places will balance it themselves with browse, mast and grain if those are available.

Will turnips attract deer to my garden too?

Yes, which is worth thinking about before planting them near a vegetable garden. Anything that makes deer resident makes every other planting more vulnerable, and a food plot near the house draws animals toward the road and the garden rather than away from them. Site a plot well away from anything you are trying to protect, and check local rules — planting food for deer counts as baiting in some jurisdictions and is restricted or prohibited during hunting seasons.

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