This is new to me, I've never had anything touch a radish before...any ideas?
Something eating my radishes
So sorry. I've had many, many radishes that have that. I can usually find a small worm inside. Don't know it's identity. Of course, your radish may have something different that looks similar.
Funny thing, the ones I planted in a bed enriched with manure have it really bad. The ones I planted in our regular soil are fine. Must have been something in the horse manure?
It's root maggots that are eating your radishes Beth. Root maggots represent a serious problem for growers of vegetables like radish, cabbage, and rutabaga. The developing maggots feed on the roots, weakening the plants, slowing crop development and leaving the roots open to invasion by rot-causing diseases.
Being in Canada, where most garden chemicals are banned, I can't give any suggestions as to what to use but I'm sure someone will be along shortly with that information
Do they hang in out in manure? The radishes in the soil with no mulch are fine! I guess I shouldn't use manure anymore. I'm sure I can't use a chemical on something I'm going to eat, anyway.
I don't think so.......I'm growing in manure too and I'm not having a problem at the patch I've been growing at for a couple of years (nor the one before). A number of years ago I had them and I didn't use manure there at all so......???
Beth make sure you rotate your crops every year and don't plant radishes where they or a cole crop have been planted before. Here I know a lot of people swear by wood ash.....they incorporate lots of it into their radish rows prior to planting. Others use frost row covers as well to stop the root maggot flies from laying their eggs (but that can only stay on for so long before it affects the growth of the radishes).
This message was edited Jun 26, 2008 4:09 PM
Good advice. This is the first year I have grow radishes there, so the flies must have layed eggs in the manure. Wood ash is new to me, I'll have to look into it.