re: radishes and other questions

[embertr]

I've left a few of my radishes to go to seed. They produce great flowers and now have some seed pods. Do I wait until the plant dies and then harvest the pods for planting next year?

Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might account for this? Will my strawberries ever taste sweet again or do I have to start over next year?

dazed and confused in calgary....

[Bill]

Thanks to the bees....you use no pesticides I presume? That is why there are bees there. Nice! We do need the bees and sometimes we forget that we do.

Last year I waited as long as I could (I waited as long as I could before the wet weather kicked in) and then brought the plant into the garage...more like a wind tunnel as it is open at both ends. I hung the whole plant up from the roof of the garage. It dried very well. Yesterday, I decided to plant some radishes (I live in BC close to Vancouver). I have saved seed before but this time I thought I would try something different....I put them in a large plastic bag and crushed the pods with my feet. (running shoes) I expected the seeds to fall to the bottom of the bag...NOPE! The seeds stayed in the mess of stomped radish branches. I planted them today...branches and all. My thinking is there has to be at least a few seeds in this mess! :) Oh well, the great adventure continues. Good luck with yours! :) Bill PS: Have a nice Sunday.

[Dwayne]

Check out the soil pH. We moved some blackberries from Arkansas (acidic) to Kansas (neutral) and they weren't sweet and lost their flavor. We may try lowering the pH next year, but it was very disappointing.

Dwayne

[embertr]

[embertr]

Thanks Bill,

Nope, no pesticides. No chemicals of any kind in our garden. We let the wasps take care of the aphids and nature take care of the rest. But after the disappointing crops this year maybe next year we go to the chemistry shop for some steroids!!!

We'll see about the radishes. I don't know about the "radish-stomp" but the hanging till dry sounds like a good idea.

Thanks, good luck with your garden.

[Bill]

I have had bitter lettuce also... I figure it to be a lack of water and/or high temperatures that make lettuce want to bolt=go to seed. My thinking is any plant that grows fast will be sweet....you may want to give the lettuce more water and when it gets hot....just cool it down by spraying a 'mist'...I have just quickly used a watering can to spray enough water to just dampen the lettuce leaves... Just the leaves...then water heavily after a little while. It does seem to work. Bill PS: Have a nice Sunday.

[John Savage]

Have you had a lot of rain? The berries when picked after a few days of rain are always tasteless IME.

[embertr]