When I get around to it! LOL Probably not until next month..
Radishes 101 !!!
If anyone is interested, I got this informative article in a newsletter this a.m. http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2593/how-to-grow-radishes
Great article, pod! Thanks!!!
Farmerdill don't tell me that about Watermelon radishes!! hahaha.. I've just planted them in a container & that won't be big enough if they grow to what you're saying! hahahahahahahahaha.
This is my first year planting veggies in Texas & they have to be in containers for now as I can't afford a raised bed. The first round of seedlings went lanky as I couldn't get them planted in the soil due to the last snowstorm we had..so they dies..I am on the second "set" & those I planted directly in the planter..I see I have 1 seedling coming..hopefully there will be more.
I've placed the container where it is partially in shade & sun..it gets shade from a nearby tree branch... so I am hoping for success, as I always thought (too) that radishes could grow pretty much anywhere.
I know beets, leeks & melons are cool weather crops..I found that after planting the seedlings.. they of course only grew a tiny bit before dying..so I will try again in the fall.
Actually, melons are HOT weather crops, but the others prefer a chill.
Yup, plenty of time still to direct seed melons cindylove...
oh..ok.. thanks
Cindy, The Watermelon radish takes about 60 days ( similar to a turnip) do better as a fall radish as they do not like hot weather. No more difficult than a turnip to grow in the fall. I sometimes grow them in the spring, but do have some trouble with bolting. Note that these Asia radishes do not serve the same purposes as the European radishes. These were developed for cooked dishes not to spice up a salad. My photo early in this thread is of the Watermelon aka Chinese Red meat.
pulled today, the Euro Sparkler
Hi I am wondering what is hot because I live in Spokane WA
we don't have real hot weather most of the time it is below
85 degree's. In August we might have 90 degrees +
In the paste months it has just been in the 60s or below and 30 degrees at night.
I am wondering if the temperature to plant in the next 2-3 month's would be cool enough?
This message was edited Apr 16, 2010 3:40 PM
Georgia hot is 100 -115 degrees Fahrenheit with 70 + humidity.
Phoenix hot is 110° plus without the humidity... Not sure which is worse - lol.
To me when you live in an area that is without the humidity
is a lot easier to deal with, to me it doesn't take as much energy out of a person. I could not handle that hot of heat.
Some times I would like live in a warmer place then I think of you and your heat and decide to be happy with my green tomatoes. Some day I want to have a greenhouse to start my plants in.
Thanks Farmerdill... I see a few sprouts coming up but won't hold too much hope for getting anything... & yes our summers can get really hot.. & humid.. I hate our summers.
Of course I was born & raised in Ontario Canada, so I am not used to temps over 80!! YET it is a lot less humid here than it was in Ontario. Hubby lived in AZ for awhile & constantly reminds me of their "dry heat"! hahahaha
The temps have already started to rise here ..as it's been in the 80's lately & humid!
When I garden I in the summer I MUST be over with all the "chores" BEFORE 11am, otherwise it's brutal!! Even in the shade. I am not looking for sympathy...just letting you know we do get HOT summers! hahahaha
I can sympathize totally cindylove - lol... But it's a dry heat... is a crock! Once it gets past 110° it's just hot! You go from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned office/store/etc and then do it in reverse - lol... For about 4 months out of the year... The rest of the year you couldn't ask for better weather. I grew up in Maine so moving hear was like night and day. Been here 17 years and I still hate the summers.
I TOTALLY agree with you Locakelly!! Hot is HOT.. & I've tell my husband that every time!! We actually tease each other as he hates the cold..which I love.. to a point! haha.. He calls me a Pansy, as they can't take the heat.. & I call him a Wuss! 'cause he can't take the cold!! hahahahahahhaa
You guys will have to try MN summers some time. Hot here is over 90º. Once in a great while we go over 100º. Even the 90º days, it is usually only a couple hours in the afternoon.
Then, what the heck, lots of lakes, so just go jump in a lake!
Most of the time there is a little breeze to help cool it off.
CountryGardens.. I KNOW hahahahaha... in Canada, where I lived.. that was exactly the type of temps we had just in August.. maybe in July.. but then after that.. NICE!! I thought it was HOT then! HA HA! It's April & we've already got the A/C on!!!! However.. saying that.. the reason why we have the A/C on is my husband suffers terribly with allergies, & we did wait as long as we could but he got really sick last week & the A/C really helps him breathe.
Allergies are going to be worse this year.. I can already feel that besides hubby! It's a good thing I "hiberbate" when it gets hotter here!!! hahahaha.. I love doing my gardening in the early hours ( for me that's from 8am to 11).
I sure don't miss the humidity, but the summers here are brutal. I'm a wuss since moving here. Grew up where it gets 40 below and now I cry in the winter if it's colder than 50° - lol.
cute locakelly! During the first few months after getting here there was a yard sale held in my community, so I participated.. I made sure I sat in the shade, as per hubby's instructions.. & I still got heat stroke.. & that was in May!!! hahahaha
OKI, back to radishes, this year I planted Champion radishes in my new garden at my new place in Apache Junction (close to Phoenix, hot). To my total shock, they grew quickly to the size of golf balls! They were so mild I ate them like snacks, just pulled them up and bit their tails off and nibbled up to the leaves! Can't remember when I planted them but had to pick them all when they started to get big enough, so they wouldn't just get woody. I think the seeds were just a pack I got on a rack at Home Depot. From now on, it is Champion radishes for me. Oh, and I have cooked them; put them in stir fry and stews and pot roast.
locakelly, It snowed here today. :-)
This is a great thread. Thanks for starting it, Podster.
I have radishes planted this year because I would like to be able to grow them, too. I have never been successful.
I planted Plum Purple, Zlata, and Green Heart Daikon.
AZgrammie ~ I gotta know... what is your soil like at Apache Jct? When did you harvest the Champions?
I am totally sympathetic on the weather. Grew up in MN where I learned to dislike the intense cold. We escaped to Tempe, AZ and in the early 70s the dry heat wasn't so bad as long as there was shade. I never had a/c in my ride and came home for lunch every day ~ I worked in Mesa. I hear the irrigation, fountains and pools have added to the humidity lately and changed that aspect of summer in AZ. True? Or no? East TX is great most of the year. I grumble when we see the rare snow (had 4 snowfalls this winter) and don't mind the heat & humidity as long as I can slip into the a/c and cool down.
Cindylove, I hate to tell you, now that you've had a heat stroke, you will never be able to stand the heat. Be careful as you will be far more susceptible.
I would love to try some of the exotic radishes but DH is narrowminded about his radishes. LOL
No more radishes for me until fall...
My Mom said southern Maine got snow - crazy!!
pod - planted the Okra today!
Best wishes with it! I hope to get mine planted this weekend (Sun-Mon)
I dont' think I'll be planting any more radishes after these last two batches either. Getting a bit warm here for them I suspect.
Podster, I bought the Apache Junction fixer-upper last August 31, spent one night there on an inflatable mattress that quickly went flat, with no air conditioning, and thought I would die! I was born in Phx and we never had ac, just window swamp coolers that lost their effectiveness in July/August/Sept. And that was before all the swimming pools, fountains, & traffic that have made humidity so much worse.
I moved to the Bay Area in CA in my late 20's and anything I planted anywhere grew. Moved back and lived in Scottsdale for 20 years, and the ground there was hard and barren but I insisted on putting in a (winter) garden anyway, and lots of fruit trees that all had a sorry time except for the citrus which did super.
Moved up here 8 years ago and it takes a very stubborn person (me) to put in gardens & fruit trees. More rocks than dirt, only junipers & tumbleweeds grow naturally. And the dirt is clay!
Anyway, after that first night in Apache Junction, my appendix burst and I spent the next 2 months in and out of the hospital (they did a John Murtha on me but I survived), so I didn't get back to Apache Junction until February, and the first thing I did was prepare a vegetable garden and plant it. I was totally surprised to find that the soil was WONDERFUL for a garden, sandy loam!!! I have never had that kind of soil before. Everything I planted grew like crazy. I go down there and come back up here with loads of lettuce etc. while what I have planted in the greenhouse here is just getting started. Gotta love it.
I harvested the Champions in early April. I had also planted Cherry Belles and they were very inferior to the Champions.
BTW, I am sure that hot night in AJ had nothing to do with my appendix bursting -- appendicitis usually occurs in children and young adults (my twin brother had his appendix removed when we were 10 or 11), not in a ol' lady like me! I was 70 and the doctor said he was amazed I survived, but my good health & active lifestyle helped. So everybody, keep on gardening!
Good health, active lifestyle and being " a very stubborn person " LOL!
I harvested a mess of Cherry Belles tonight to find something had been nibbling on the radishes. Perhaps a mouse but hard to imagine with my cat collection. Think this crop is doomed. But, you have convinced me to give the Champions a try in the fall.
I've grown a few and I think I prefer Champion as well. They're tasty!
lol - "I'm amazed you survived" isn't exactly a confidence-building thing to hear from your doctor!
Anyways, bonus radishes! I "found" a whole little batch of them today when I was planting in one of my beds. I thought they had frozen when they were seedlings and stopped looking for them, but apparently something has just been chewing the tops off. The roots managed to get energy to make nice little red radishes.
Pod, yes I am stubborn, just don't know when to quit!
LOL, realbirdlady, you are right! I'm not sure the surgeon used those exact words, but he had a really great sense of humor so he may have. He was not the one who managed to puncture my innards. Ooooh, gross, let's change the subject back to radishes! How amazing that you found radishes that made it through the winter.
Got my 30x30 garden tilled (with a shovel, the Mantis is useless) and today I made pathways through it and smoothed out the planting beds. I'm makling wide rows per Dick Raymond's Joy of Gardening. Tomorrow I plant!
Podster.. yes, I am extra careful these days.. as I am also an ovarian cancer survivor ( into my 3rd yr of remission) so I have to be even more careful.. so my time outdoors is limited even more during the summers.
I have never loved the hot summers in Canada to begin with so I was really shocked at the summers here..which to me start in April! hahahahaha
AZg So you don't like your Mantis. I have thought about buying one.
I bought a little tiller Sunday at Menards. It's called an "Earthquake." Tills 10" wide & 4" deep. My son said it works good. It has wheels & works best when you go backwards. It was only $149.
deanna, I hate my Mantis. I bought it about 8 years ago but didnt' move up here and put in a garden for another 2 years, and the warranty expired. I used it once, then it just quit. I've taken it apart, cleaned the carburetor, have had two different mechanically gifted friends take it apart and put it back together again. First guy said it was a loser, second guy said it worked for him. Then it sat here all winter and now I want to use it, and it won't start again. And the Mantis help desk is NOT helpful.
It will now be a garage sale item.
If I had it to do over again I'd buy one with an electric start, even if it meant dragging a generator up to the big garden to plug the tiller in.
Country, you tiller sounds good and I hope it works for you forever.
This the latest maturing of the spring radishes, but quite good, no bolting, no cracking, and all of of them are forming up. Sparkler made some nice radishes but a good percentage bolted or cracked. Cherry Belle was planted later, but came in earlier, Good dependable radish.
Ping Pong. They do remind you of ping pong balls. Milder than the Sparkler or Cherry belle.
Farmerdill.. I noticed the watermelon radishes that I planted are shaded by our tree.. I know you said they were cool weather crops.. but would being in the shade help them grow now?? I am getting a lot of seedlings, but not keeping up much hope of anything.. I am just letting them grow for curiousity's sake.
Maybe, remember the watermelon radish has a medium long season requiring some 60 days to mature. Nothing to lose at this point.
Cherry Belle
I picked up a little Toro tiller at a yard sale early last year for about $55 and love it, Mixing amendments into existing beds is easy. I hardly even drag out the large Monkey Wards rear tine tiller at all. My son uses it for his new plot. I actually use it more for excavating than for tilling. LOL My veggie garden is so well worked I just turn it with a fork and run the Toro up and down a few times an voila, ready. It also seems to pulverize the soil less which results in less compaction.Ric
podster, just wanted to say that I feel your pain on the radishes. I can't seem to grow them to save my life. I've had a little luck with Cherry Belle, but that's not saying much. Champion didn't do anything for me, and one other variety (scarlet tip or something?) was also a bust. I've been growing them in pots and the soil has been loose and I've been careful to keep them moist. The tops haven't been huge either, so I don't think I've overdone the nitrogen. The only thing I can figure is that they weren't getting enough sun and/or possibly I planted them too close together.
Just thought I'd chime in. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that radishes don't seem to like. I'm glad you posted, because maybe this thread will help me finally grow some!
As for eating them in sandwiches, I grew up eating open-face radish sandwiches -- white bread, butter, salt and pepper (although I probably didn't need the pepper).
Last night I uprooted the balance of this bunch and don't have a clue as to the dismal results. Most were radishless with spiky little red roots. Those that made were fine with quarter sized radishes. DH said tasted all right but I felt were truly a waste of garden space and effort.
The tops had no enemies looking healthy.
The roots had plenty of space to spread.
The moisture level in the soil was consistent.
Germination rate was excellent.
If I have a guess, the semi shady spot combined with the additional shade from the foliage was a part of the problem.
Any thoughts?
Watching my next planting like a hawk!
Well, I forgot about my radishes for a while. Last day or two, I have been plucking them willy-nilly. Farmerdill, you were spot-on, as usual. The Cherry Belles are nice and plump, and the ones that didn't find room to grow in the ground simply grew above.
My first harvest for the year was lettuce (from a "mesclun mix" so no idea what kind) and radishes. Nice salad:)