Daikon radishes?

They do sound great!  I am giving the Chinese red meat radish another try.  I think Citizen Kate said she thought they were more of a fall type.

Wow! Haven't seen this thread in a while. I grow daikon in the spring so that they will bolt as the weather warms and give me some yummy pods. Then I let the remainder go to seed for collecting mid summer. The flowers are beautiful and attractive to pollinators in late spring. Then I plant seeds again right about now for fall and early winter root and greens harvesting.
Yes, this IS a great plant!
CC

Needs to get me some.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Needs to get me some.

I'd be happy to share or I could buy you your very own when I place my order. I'm getting 30% off. 

Could you send me some to try suz?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Could you send me some to try suz?

You bet! I'll let you know when they get here. I placed my order last night.

Perfect!  PM me and we can see if you wanna swap when ya get 'em!

Scorpio Rising wrote:Perfect!  PM me and we can see if you wanna swap when ya get 'em!

Sounds good. Will you have seeds for that cute little melon in your avatar?

Yes!  Absolutely!  Minnesota Midget is da bomb!

Scorpio Rising wrote:Yes!  Absolutely!  Minnesota Midget is da bomb!

Perfect! Do you think I can grow it inside over the winter?

When you say indoors, are you talking about a south facing enclosed porch? I'm not sure about the hours of sun we get in the winter. Audrey grows tomatoes in the green house during the winter but there are a couple of months without production.

sanderson wrote:When you say indoors, are you talking about a south facing enclosed porch?  I'm not sure about the hours of sun we get in the winter.  Audrey grows tomatoes in the green house during the winter but there are a couple of months without production.

Yup, south facing enclosed porch. I also turn the butterfly house into a greenhouse in the winter. It has heat and lights. I may not have a green thumb, but I am determined!

Scorpio Rising wrote:Perfect!  PM me and we can see if you wanna swap when ya get 'em!

They're here already! I'm in love with Sustainable Seed Co. I'll PM you right now and get these out to you, tomorrow.

Boy, we sure got off-topic in this thread. 

3 of my Daikon radish plants survived and look good. Now if I could only get my regular radishes to produce, I'd be a happy camper.

countrynaturals wrote:Boy, we sure got off-topic in this thread. 

3 of my Daikon radish plants survived and look good. Now if I could only get my regular radishes to produce, I'd be a happy camper.

Nice!

CapeCoddess wrote:Since my spring seeded daikons bolted before a radish was formed, I decided to leave a few plants and let them go to flower & seed and eat the pods like you can do with regular radishes.  I tried a small one and it was crispy like a sugar pea pod but pretty hot. So I'm waiting til they are bigger and maybe a smidge milder.  The beautiful flowers are actually purple mixed with white but you can't tell that in this photo:



I have a batch of regular radish flowers going to pod also.  They are a pretty white.  


CC

Eat the pods? WOW! I'm so in love with these puppies I can get over it.

Motto wrote:Daikon grows well in well-drained soil, like volcanic ash.  The size varies depending on kind, and some glows well over a foot (length).

It's not suitable to pots if you want to make it edible. 

Motto

I had a feeling this might be the case. I use fireplace ash in the mix for my regular radishes, so I thought these guys might like it, too. I'm working on a plan right now for an ash-radish bed.

CapeCoddess wrote:I think the fall planted daikon did really well here.  I pulled an 8" one and have been slowly eating off it for 2 weeks or so.  It is hotter than blazes! So I decided I'd better leave the others planted to see if the cooler weather might cool it down a bit.

The ones I'm planting today are from the same seed packet as the ones I'm harvesting. It will be interesting to see the "heat differential." 

CapeCoddess wrote:I pulled one yesterday and can tell you all that cooler weather has no bearing on the calming down heat of the daikon!  Wow!  

CC

Good thing I learned my lesson (the hard way   ) about saving seeds. Whatever variety I have, it is the mildest radish I've ever tasted -- at least when grown over the winter -- so I will definitely be saving the seeds. If the ones I'm planting today survive, I will actually be looking forward to having them bolt so we can try eating some pods and saving some seeds. Move over kale, daikon could be my new favorite crop! 

Marc Iverson wrote:*bump*

Planted daikon last fall.  Poor germination, but I did get two of them.  The tops are starting to get up there and it looks like they may be bolting already.  But ... from sticking my finger in the soil, I can't feel anything like a radish root.  That's a shame, since they've been in the ground since at least October.  And it makes me wonder ... what could I have done any differently?

What makes radishes bulb or not bulb?

Planted mine on 8/28. Only 3 of 8 survived. Harvested 2/14. The radishes seemed a little "over baked" but they aren't very big -- small carrot size. I have had the same non-bulb problem with other radishes, so I'm experimenting with lots of ashes in my planting mix -- almost 50%. I won't know if that's the answer for another few weeks, however, since I just planted the others a few days ago.

CapeCoddess wrote:Wow! Haven't seen this thread in a while. I grow daikon in the spring so that they will bolt as the weather warms and give me some yummy pods. Then I let the remainder go to seed for collecting mid summer. The flowers are beautiful and attractive to pollinators in late spring. Then I plant seeds again right about now for fall and early winter root and greens harvesting.
Yes, this IS a great plant!
CC

That's exactly what I'm going to do from now on.   CC, for the inspiration. Yesterday I was bummed cuz I thought I would have to wait until August to plant again, but now I'm all excited about putting seeds to dirt TODAY! 

HA! this thread again! Love it!
Wish you guys would have asked me for some seeds before buying. I harvest them in the summer and have lots.
Always ask for whatever. Ya just never know.

OH, I've been meaning to sprout some daikon seeds to see how they taste as sprouts and keep forgetting. Has anyone done that?

Also, Trader Joe's has a lovely brown rice mix and one of the ingredients is ...*drum roll pls*...DAIKON SEEDS!

Whatta hoot!

CapeCoddess wrote:OH, I've been meaning to sprout some daikon seeds to see how they taste as sprouts and keep forgetting.  Has anyone done that?

Sprouts? Really? Ooooo, that's what I'll try when I harvest my own seeds this spring. I don't want to do it with store bought seeds, just in case they were treated with something.

OOOh, radishes are a different genus than collards... I can get both radish seeds for microgreens AND get collard seeds from my overwintered collards without risking (much) contamination of them by the radishes. (I don't care if my microgreens are of mixed parentage, but I do want my collards to be collards, not colishes or raddards).

I, too, prefer daikons over the usual sharp, spring radishes, so I've been looking for spring daikons. I got KN-Bravo radish seeds from Johnny's last year. It's a purple daikon that is advertised as being suitable for spring, but I think they all bolted on me before making real radishes. But I recall the foliage having darker tones, so the offspring seedlings might also add some color to microgreens. I'll try them again this year, and if they bolt, I just get a different crop- seeds instead of roots. I plant my daikon and other winter radishes at 9/sq.

I also got Alpine from Johnny's last year, also intended as a spring Daikon (and also a hybrid). I had better success with that one, but I still haven't got the timing quite right.

April Cross is another spring daikon - again, a hybrid. I (barely) managed to convince myself to hold off on buying and trying that one until next year.

Has anyone grown both white icicle and daikon to be able to compare the flavor? Even the spring radishes described as  mild are pungent for me (though I understand some of this can be due to growing conditions.)

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:Has anyone grown both white icicle and daikon to be able to compare the flavor? Even the spring radishes described as  mild are pungent for me (though I understand some of this can be due to growing conditions.)

I have white icicles growing in the same medium as the daikons. They got about a 2 week head start. We shall see, we shall see.