What happened to my radishes?!

Two falls ago my son brought seeds home and we planted them in an old, rotting window box with soil from who knows what that was in it. I believe he watered fairly regularly. The radishes came out small and yummy and just fine.

So I bought seeds from Seed Savers Exchange and planted in the same box but with better ammended soil, watered quite regularly, etc.. Germination happened on time and the tops looked healthy and fantastic! But NO BULBS developed. Very strong and thick and radish colored roots developed, but they stopped there. Harvest time came and went and the tops began to fade, so I finally pulled them.

What happened? We do little right and the crop is fantastic. We do it all the right way and nothing grew. Thoughts?

Besides the obvious (soil too compacted, plants too close together) I've heard heat can cause this.

It sounds like when I first started gardening and I was a little... er... heavy handed. I used to compact the soil way too hard -- my iron soil phase. My radishes germinated fine, but never really did much else. My wife coined the term, "failure to thrive" for it.

Ed

I've never grown radishes but I have given carrots the iron soil treatment with poor results lol

Maybe the soil was a little too amended? I've grown radishes in good soil and not so good soil and they seem to prefer the not so good soil. Too much Nitrogen can cause beautiful green leaves and little or no fruit (or roots in the case of your radishes). I've learned that the less I baby my garden, the better it performs for me.

Oh - and as Dorkasaurus said, heat CAN cause this as well. Your zone is similar to mine, and after the middle of February it's almost too hot here to plant them. They may grow, but will be pithy (yucky hot) and not very good to eat. Fall/winter planting or very early spring works best here.

Better luck on your radished next time. They are pretty easy to grow and some varieties mature very quickly (like 28 days), so experiment with the planting times and conditions until you find what works for you;o)


Kelly

It's definitely too hot now. I was hoping for this one crop in April and then won't plant again until maybe October.

I know I haven't compacted the soil too much, so the two things that make the most sense is heat (we had a heat wave early and reached 90-100 for several days.. grrr!) and the ammended soil. I may also put less seeds in this time.

I bet we will get a nice crop in the fall when we try again. But bummer!

I tried an experiment and got some really great radishes. I planted them in a hanging pot with about the depth of a window box, but filled the pot with leaves and grass clippings, and then put about an inch of peat moss and potting mix on top. Sowed the seeds in and got some very tasty, spicy, round and happy radishes.

Because they didn't have much in the way of soil to grow in, and because the leaves and grass clippings made for a very loose medium, they seemed to thrive. All I know is that I love radishes and will be doing this sort of thing again.