Hi all,
I am super pleased with my radishes this year. They are now too big for the earwigs to hassle with. I didn't look for two days and they have doubled in size! Yippee! Something I can't kill!
Questions:
1) how will I know when they can be harvested?2) can I leave them in the ground and harvest them at different times to keep them from spoiling?
Many thanks,
-T
Radishes in my area just keep getting bigger and hotter until they start splitting until I pull them and put them in the composter. It all depends on your climate.
George, up early to feed the !@#$% dawg
they really are one of the easiest veggies to grow.
i like the young sprouts better than the root so for me it is "immediately". :) all thinnings are yummy.
in your heat/climate i suspect they'll bolt or crisp eventually. the flowers are nice and there's no downside to me in having wild radishes as a weed substitute.
songbird
Max has a demand feeder ... but every morning around 6:30 he gets me up to make the coffee . We walk while it brews , he gets some in a bowl with milk then he goes outside on his lead - usually after a friendly game of tug .
This morning while we were walking I found a volunteer squash (I think) in an unexpected spot - nowhere near the garden . It's not in the way and I'm interested in just what it is , so I'll leave it there .
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Snag
Probably a bird drop Snag. When we lived on the farm it was not unusual to find something sprouting where we didn't put it. Birds or mice will plant for you if they don't eat all the seeds.
Tilly Dawg is only allowed one third of a cup of dog food by vet's demand. Consequently, being a rescue dog, she thinks she's starving to death all the time. Eat a meal and she stands where she can see you eating and has her head down and is seriously thinking of taking your food away from you. Still, in all my 77 years she has been the best dog I've ever had. I swear, if she could talk, she would use perfect English. I can have her moving just by hand signals, and she stops when I cut my throat with my hand.
George
Some of this depends on what kind of radishes you have planted, but generally, their tops will pop up right at or slightly above the soil line. You can get an idea of size by feel at that point. I mention feel, as there are some I like to pull young - say, small, French b'fast ones, and other I allow to get larger to develop more fully. The trick is not allowing them to get woody. Pick 'em young enough that they are crisp and juicy. It will not take you more than a couple of days of experimenting to get to know what your preferences are.
Mine mature at different times, so I cannot pick a whole row at once (I actually grow them in tubs. They do very well there as it is easy to keep the soil friable.) I just feel around the bulbous part that is sticking up to gauge the size to be what I seek, then pick it, or leave it..
Nature helps with that somewhat, but they don't like hanging around overly long like carrots, beets, or horseradish - at least not the good eating radishes.
Awesome , I hope to get Max to obey hand signals too . It's an uphill battle with this pup , he's almost as bullheaded as I am ... and as big as he is (10 mo old and around 80 lbs) it's very important that he minds , whether by hand or voice command .
Looks like good germination on my field peas and okra , A few small bare spots from where something dug in the rows , but I have seed to replant . I still have a corner that has nothing planted , I'm considering some corn . The wife can't eat commercial corn products , I'm wondering if it's the Roundup they douse it with ... homegrown without chemicals might agree with her system .
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Snag
I started Tilly as a young pup, I've found over the years that most terrier breeds are really smart. Tilly is my second rat terrier and, no doubt, the smartest dog I've ever had. She follows hand signals well, and she also seems to understand voice commands. If she starts to do something she shouldn't I just say "NO" and she stops. I think she knows every word that contains something to eat. She will stand in front of me with her head down and her eyes on me eating. I suspect in hope either I will drop some food or I will fall over dead and then she can eat.
I'm in my office and she came in after me and got up on her couch to keep and eye on me. She also loves my kids, grands, and great grands and, when I tick her off, she goes to sit by my wife of 57 years and looks at me with an eye to see if I'm jealous. We have a great granddaughter who has problems but she will come over to Tilly and tell her "Give me a smooch." And Tilly licks her nose and then they both grin.
We're getting scattered rain but it is still close to 90F out there.
George
I picked up my thinnings based on your comments. My wife absolute adores them in her salads.
Thank you!
Thank you!
T wrote: ...
:) it's a nice zip when the leaves are young. i've not eaten them past the sprout stage.
beet greens and chard are good too and go much longer.
i'm not sure how oxyalates and diabetes may interact. i'd do some reading before eating too much of spinach, rhubarb or the chard and beet greens (and then tread gingerly).
songbird
Not a diabetes problem at all. But high oxyalates do tend to mess up both our mouths, so we tend to avoid them.
My wife check the nutrition on those guys versus regular lettuce (not iceburg). Lettuce has about half the nutrition. A good excuse to eat twice as much!
Ever since the Primal, lettuce (not iceburg) has tasted yummy to both of us. Before primal, it was yukky.
We usually have at least one YUGE salad a day.
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