Friday Rookie Topic: Radish

madnicmom 3/23/2012, 9:57 am

Radish

Family: Mustard

Height: 6-12 inches

Spacing: 16/sq. ft.

Growing Season: All year, with certain varieties just for winter. Cherry Belle - pithiness resistant.

Earliest and Last Planting: 3 weeks before last spring frost, 4 weeks before the first fall frost.

Watering: Don't let radishes dry out; this can cause them to taste pithy and hot. This is another crop that I water with a watering can until well established since they are planted so shallow.

Companion planting: beets, spinach, carrots, parsnip, kohlrabi, bush beans, peas, pole beans, nasturtiums. 2-3 Icicle radishes with cucumbers, squash and melons repel the striped cucumber beetle (DO NOT PULL BUT LET THEM GO TO SEED) and with tomatoes to repel the spider mite. The presence of leaf lettuce in the summer will make radishes more tender.

Crop rotation: do not rotate with cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, broccoli or turnips.

Resource: Carrots Love Tomatoes, page 46, 52, 97, 114,124, 138,156 copyright 1975

Disease/Pests: Flea beetles make numerous small holes in radish leaves. Cabbage root maggots and cutworms sometimes rasp holes or channels into radish skins. All pests are avoidable by using floating row covers.

Resource: http://www.radishgarden.com/growing.php (Thank you Camprn)

General information: Radishes are a cool weather crop and love it moist. Radishes colors range from red, white and pink, and their shape can be long (icicle) or short. Radishes grown in the fall are least likely to bolt (go to seed). When reading the forum, the most common problem posted was radishes not bulbing but having lots of leaves. Cause: not enough thinning or too much Nitrogen and too little potassium are the culprits.

Resource: http://www.radishgarden.com/growing.php

All other information found in the ANSFG pages, 173,222-223,259

Visit http://www.radishgarden.com/growing.php for more on nutritional information and recipes.

**RoOsTeR** 3/23/2012, 1:44 pm

Awesome! Thanks for the great info on radishes!
I've missed not having the rookie topics the last few Weeks.
Thanks for catching us up Kim.

**Furbalsmom** 3/23/2012, 2:40 pm

Thanks Kim

quiltbea 3/23/2012, 2:48 pm

Thanks Kim. Its always nice to see the Rookie topics and not just for rookies. I always learn a bit more when these are posted.

I just planted some with my earliest lettuce seeds this morning. Can't wait to see them come up.

H_TX_2 3/23/2012, 3:03 pm

I just started my 2nd year gardening and I planted radishes in my fall garden. I don't know of anyone who eats them so I grow them as a trash crop and at harvest time they went into my compost pile. I heard that radishes repel some pests and other pests prefer radishes over other plants. In my fall garden with several types of lettuce and a few other things my radishes had more holes eaten out of the leaves than anything else. Most of my lettuce was left basically untouched. I am going to plant some radishes in my garden near my tomatoes and squash hoping to repel things that I don't want near those plants. I will hope for the best and at the same time be on the lookout for anyone who likes radishes.

quiltbea 3/23/2012, 6:43 pm

I planted radishes in my watremelon bed and let them go to seed. I was amazed at how big they got before the end of the season. But they did their work. No problem with bugs on the melons or squashes.

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Friday Rookie Topic: Radish

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