Post pictures of your radishes here...

Free seeds but from the cover of a magazine and they are branded Mr Fothergills. Sowing some more tomorrow.

Mr Q, sorry..lost your address..er um..cant find the postbox...the post office burnt down...have you seen the postage price of an apple..I mean radish...the line is breaking up, cant hear you...Tsunami...ahhhhhhh !

Steve...

 

A few more radish photo's, last ones I promise. Cherries and tape measure for a sense of scale.





Steve...

 

What small hands you have Steve R - it makes everything in them look so big!


For about a year, I've been contemplating recycling that joke. Then, I looked at my own dainty mitts...


Anyway, the first crop of Scarlet Globe for 2018.


Thirty-three days since the seeds went in.



Fast growing but slugs and snails find them quite tasty too. About a third were affected but the green tops were untouched.

 

Been reading these posts with a mixture of amusement/interest and green eyes! Please can you give me and possibly @JWK the secret to growing good Radish @misterQ and/or @Steve R . I've have grown them or attempted to quite a few times and apart from once (beginners luck no doubt) I get leaves and b all root. I don't really like Radish but husband does and he also likes the leaves stir fried with garlic so all not lost with my feeble attempts. I have seed left from last year so want to give it another go but why are my attempts failing? Have tried in a container in the greenhouse and in the veg plot with pretty much the same nil results root wise.

 

We'll make a convert out of you yet, Silu.

I never used to like coriander but since successfully growing a mass of it, I now like eating the stuff. I think it will be the same for you with radishes.


My own brand of alchemy requires a bit of commitment, so here goes:

1. Mix in half a trowel of fish blood and bone meal fertilizer per sq meter if the compost is spent compost;

2. Sow seeds thinly into drills about 1 inch deep and 6 inches apart so that you will get nice neat rows of radishes;

3. Water well using the shower pattern of the hose nozzle if you have it;

4. Wait until the surface of the compost dries before the next watering, then water lightly everyday just to wet the surface until germination;

5. Once the seed leaves appear, change the nozzle to the centre pattern and water inbetween the nice neat rows of radish seedlings;

6. Hopefully, by this step, you will be pulling big, fat, juicy, plump radish globes.


Good luck.

 

Thanks @misterQ The germination has usually been ok it's after that!! Am I best to grow in a container ie something like a plastic window box thingy I have spare which is about 8 ins deep in the unheated greenhouse (I live near the arctic circle...commonly known as Scotland) or just in a veg border? Most of my veg borders have had horse manure on them either this spring or last. I have Phostrogen but no blood fish and bonemeal but could get.....try not to use that due to 2 fluffy things called cats who can smell the stuff a mile off and proceed to roll in it where I've sprinkled it.

 

I prefer the KISS method, draw a half inch trench with finger..sprinkle seed, cover with soil..water. Job done.

Silu, I'm in northwest cumbria and no problems here growing them either indoors or out.

Steve...

 

Many thanks @Steve R . I'll give it another bash and hope for the best. Maybe @JWK and I could have a competition to see who can grow the worst.

 

A small well done, Sienna's Blossom.

What variety are they and how do you eat them?

 

I'm not sure what the variety was, we've used and thrown out the packet now. They're full of flavour though, we just eat them as they are with other salad.
Only had a couple of rows free in the herb/veg bed for them, but pleased with them, and now have space to sow some more when I pick up another seed packet.

 

And, do you make use of the green tops?

 

Never used the tops before, maybe I'll have to give that a go with the next ones.

 

Whilst munching away on a pickle radish and seeing Scrungee's novel way of growing them in modules in THE VEGETABLE GROWING THREAD 2018, I thought to myself that this thread was seriously lacking in some novelty.

Then, I remembered seeing these two things together:




And, a thought struck me: If this doesn't scream of a Radish Pagoda and novelty then nothing will!


So, here is the prototype.



This free standing version has an inch of gravel in the base to keep it from toppling over, and normal drainage holes.

Placed inside a basin of water, it can be watered from above and below. Drill a hole into the side of the basin just a little higher than an inch from the base to regulate the maximum water level.


Making a template for the cut-outs and thinking a little ahead:

We have Version 2.0





Wouldn't it be great if bottle manufacturers printed the patterns on the bottle itself or even included it on the label as a template?

Anyway, this version can be free standing or suspended from a string tied to the optional cross brace (made from bamboo barbecue skewers or similar thin rods).

The drainage holes are drilled slightly above the base so that there is a small water store at the bottom of the bottle.


Making watering from the top a bit more convenient:

We have Version 2.1






How to plant the radish seeds

1. Fill the pagoda with compost and firm any excess spillage out of the cut-outs back into the bottle with the side of your thumb. Do it one level at a time;

2. Thoroughly wet the compost by misting or gently watering it from the top and/or the bottom;

3. Place two or three radish seeds into each cut-out and press them 5mm into the compost inside the bottle. Nip off the weakest seedling(s) if more than one germinates in each of the cut-outs;

4. Rotate the pagoda a quarter turn every two days for even growth;

5. Water as necessary.



Ah, misterQ, but what about UV degradation and plastic leaching?

That's why the radish pagodas are intended for short term food growing usage (radish take between about 24 - 50 days to reach the harvesting stage), after that, the pagodas can be re-used for non edibles.

For example, faux lupins and hanging flower pagodas.


And, remember, they are RADISH PAGODAS...


Not Strawberry T----s.