I'm about to go crazy trying to grow the easiest of all vegetables to grow -- radishes.
No matter what location I use, no matter what soil, no matter what depth I plant them, I always get the same result: A two-inch-long spindly stem, but never a root.
I follow all the instructions on the packet very carefully, but the result is ALWAYS the same.
Any suggestions welcome.
How much sun per day do they get? What is the temperature range through the day?
D
Radish is a cool weather crop, best planted in very early spring after danger of a hard freeze has passed. If you attempt to grow radish in hot weather you will get woody radishes, exactly what you described.
I've planted radishes at least a dozen times -- in all locations, at all times of the year -- always with the same result.
Radish is a cool weather crop, best planted in very early spring after danger of a hard freeze has passed. If you attempt to grow radish in hot weather you will get woody radishes, exactly what you described.
I didn't read that, he said "never a root".
Ray wrote:
To most growers radishes are pretty easy. Unless you give some more details that allow us to work out what is different about your situation any advice is a guess. So what is your climate, what is your soil like, what is the range of the situations that you have planted in, what seed have you used? How long do you wait after sprouting? Are you sure that you actually have radish seed not some other brassica that has no significant root?
D***I can empathize! I've had terrible results with a veg that is supposed to be so easy that little kids plant it in their school garden. I'm in So. Calif. coastal, and I DO NOT plant in hot weather and I have good soil. Who knows...?
HB
When preparing the planting bed, loosen the soil 6 to 10 inches deep, and mix in good compost or well-rotted manure. Sow seeds a half inch deep and 1 inch apart, in rows spaced 12 inches apart. After the seedlings appear, thin salad radishes to 3 inches apart; thin oriental radishes to 8 to 10 inches apart. Seeds typically sprout in three to seven days when sown in 60-degree soil.
Use fine soil. This is true of most root vegetables. They need to breathe in order to grow. Radish seeds and sprouts are tiny and do not grow well in soil that has not been broken up properly. While any type of soil works for growing radishes, keep it loose and fine. Doing so will make picking easier as well.
Radishes do not like hot weather. They do need about six hours of sunlight a day. Filtered sunlight is best. You can use netting to accomplish this. Simply stretch it over or across the area where radishes are planted. Radishes can be planted in shady areas of the garden, where other vegetables might fail.
Don?t be discouraged if a spring crop doesn?t meet your expectations. Your best shot at perfect radishes comes in fall, when the soil is getting cooler rather than warmer. Radishes make a good fall cover crop. Plant them after beans, peas or another nitrogen-fixing legume, and they will utilize nitrogen left behind in the soil. Later, when the plants are killed by cold winter weather, nitrogen and other nutrients will be returned to the soil.
Thanks -- I'll give your suggestions a work-out.
'Ray[_3_ Wrote:
When preparing the planting bed, loosen the soil 6 to 10 inches deep, and mix in good compost or well-rotted manure. Sow seeds a half inch deep and 1 inch apart, in rows spaced 12 inches apart. After the seedlings appear, thin salad radishes to 3 inches apart; thin oriental radishes to 8 to 10 inches apart. Seeds typically sprout in three to seven days when sown in 60-degree soil.
Use fine soil. This is true of most root vegetables. They need to breathe in order to grow. Radish seeds and sprouts are tiny and do not grow well in soil that has not been broken up properly. While any type of soil works for growing radishes, keep it loose and fine. Doing so will make picking easier as well.
Radishes do not like hot weather. They do need about six hours of sunlight a day. Filtered sunlight is best. You can use netting to accomplish this. Simply stretch it over or across the area where radishes are planted. Radishes can be planted in shady areas of the garden, where other vegetables might fail.
Don?t be discouraged if a spring crop doesn?t meet your expectations. Your best shot at perfect radishes comes in fall, when the soil is getting cooler rather than warmer. Radishes make a good fall cover crop. Plant them after beans, peas or another nitrogen-fixing legume, and they will utilize nitrogen left behind in the soil. Later, when the plants are killed by cold winter weather, nitrogen and other nutrients will be returned to the soil.
I've already advised you on how to grow radishes and here you are still at it, and failing. The most important aspect of growing radishes is to sow seeds in cool weather. As with all food crops grow in rich friable soil, and keep well watered... growing a radish crop is as basic as gardening gets, anyone who fails at radish growing needs to forget gardening.
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