Radish sprouts in 2 days !

This is my first year for a Fall SFG and I am amazed how fast my radish sprouted. From seed to sprouts it only took 2 days! This is my second time planting them this year because, I think it was to hot in August for them to sprout. I planted 2 squares and it looks like 95% sprouted. I hope the rest of my garden does that well!

Congrats

I just planted last night & would be could if I saw something Monday

talk about immediate gratification! That's my kind of gardening!

(PS - Acara - I love your photo/avatar!)

How about lettuce sprouts in three days? Bok Choi in five? After adding some compost to these squares, these were the results. Since my own batch isn't yet "cooked," I used E.B. Stone Planting Compost, worm castings, and E.B. Stone Top Coat, consisting of composted wood products and mushroom compost.

Yahtzee ... I got sprouts too !!!!

First plant from a seed since I was 6 !!

What the heck do I do now >>>>LOL

Go acara, go!!!

Megan wrote: Go acara, go!!!

It seems the gardening gods have chosen to favor the idiot today and hath smiled opon me!

Craziness !!!!

Go acara!

I let one of my radishes "go" when it bolted this spring. Silly thing ended up with stems over 4 feet tall. It had really pretty, small fuschia-colored blossoms. Lots of them, too! Who knew.....

Acara, how do you intend to transplant those into your garden? Radishes really don't like to be transplanted. My concern is the plastic webbing that surrounds the peat pots, I am not sure the radish roots can grow out of that.

Furbalsmom wrote:Acara, how do you intend to transplant those into your garden? Radishes really don't like to be transplanted. My concern is the plastic webbing that surrounds the peat pots, I am not sure the radish roots can grow out of that.

Ahh ...the joy of "the accidental gardener".....sometimes stuff grows despite the gardener being dumber than a bag of hammers.

To answer your question.....I have no idea. I realized the same thing about 2 hours after I saw they sprouted.

Tenatively, I think I'm going to remove the webbing with tweezers and a a modelling knife, transplant them & hope for the best. I was also considering cutting out the bottom & cutting a single vertical slit down the entire length (height) of the webbing, in order to allow it to "open" as the radish gains diameter.


But I'm open to other suggestions.

I still wondering on the "when". The "instructions" say transplant "X" days after they sprout, but they sprouted early & I think I have what's described as 2-true leaves (?). I might try to transplant them in the next couple of days.

Again ... this is my first attempt at seeds since I was 6 .... so I'm already farther ahead than I ever imagined ....LOL

Roots are pretty powerful, and the webbing isn't as strong as you think. I'd handle the peat pots as little as possible so as not try not to disturb the seedlings. If you are worried about it, you could cut a slit in the bottom or tweeze off a piece of the bottom.

If you're concerned whether they will survive the transplant, you could also just plant some more seeds in the ground... they too should sprout in just a couple days.

Well it's either fixed or they'll croak.

One of the jiffy-pods looked like a root was trying to push out the bottom, so I transplanted them.

5-6 days (5 probably would have been better) seems to be the magic number to "right the wrong". None of the roots poked through or were exposed, membrane came off easily and peat balls stayed together nicely when I removed the membrane.

I packed them gently in some MM that I left in the sun today to dry out, so that it was fine/loose/powdey and compacted/rewet it with an eyedropper on each planting, to pack it and eliminate air pockets between the peatballs and the dirt.

We'll see how they do.

p.s. Megan, you were right ... I think the roots & developing radish would have blown right through that membrane with no problem ....... should have just dropped them right in their new location ...... hindsight is 20/20

I had a picture in my mind of you gently placing them in their new bed, using an eyedropper to water them in and almost fell out of my chair.

Sorry if I was so far off base regarding the peat pods and transplanting, but my seed packs and articles I have read regarding plantings of radishes all said direct sow outside. Now I really want to know how they do over the next couple of weeks.

Did they really have true leaves already? You photo from a few days ago showed the seed leaves that come before the true leaves. Though with that crack cuke you have, it seems like your crops are just amazing.

Yeah ... but I'm a newb SFG person, so I gravitate to what I know (bonsai, topiary & orchids).

The eyedropper is a bonsai trick for getting small amounts of soil/media where you want it, without traumatizing/damaging roots (or washing out the growing media with the water pressure).

I've seen all the same warnings about radishes (not to transplant), but not until after I had already goofed.

What can I say .... it was an insomnia night, I found the seed package and the jiffy pots in the garage from one of my daughters old school projects & I figured what the heck else was there to do at 3am, without waking the rest of the house up.

Not one of my brightest moments or best-planned adventures.

As far as the "true leaves" ... heck if I know ... they were green & I was pretty sure they weren't fruit, flowers, stems or roots .... so by process of elimination, I went with it

Acara, if you can keep orchids and bonsai alive and healthy, I don't think you have too much to fear. Veggies are pretty resilient.

I have to laugh at myself, because this spring I got all freaked out because my pole beans grew past the top of my trellis and the wind broke them off by pressing the stem against the top conduit crossrail. I needn't have worried. Months later, those beans are still happily trying to take over!

Seed leaves are the first pair of leaves that a veggie puts up. Usually they do not look "typical" to the plant in question, and are fairly round. Such as, for a bean with a pointy leaf, the seed leaves would not be pointy. (The nasturtium I sprouted this spring was a surprising exception to that, the seed leaves were unmistakably nasturtium-like.)

I dunno .... working with older plants sure seemed a lot easier. I've nursed my fair share of sick plants back to health, can graft, shape, ring-bark, etc but this planting from seeds thing is killing me ..... LOL

Think I'm going back to transplants exclusively.

Your option, certainly, but goodness gracious... don't let a few liddle radish seeds scare you! I planted my garden this year almost exclusively from seed (and direct-planted, too), with only vague memories from growing up on a farm, made tons of mistakes, and still, almost all of it grew. Give yourself another chance or two?

yeah .. probably should tough it out & see if I can recover these..... just hate killing stuff out of stupidity & lack of research/planning.

They're radish seeds, not orchids or bonsai. I feel fairly certain you can survive the loss of a few, should that become necessary. Not a good basis upon which to give up so soon already!

Please understand, I have no problem with transplants whatsoever, just it makes me sad to think that something like this might scare you off trying to start your own plants. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't... I've had failures this year and I am going to try again next year, but I've also done a lot better than I expected, overall.

Just saying ... This whole plant thing seems to work out much better when Bonnie.com does what they do best & I take it from there

I'm having a paranoia-fit about my wild Florida everglades tomato seeds now ....hopefully I didn't bone those up too.

I think I'd have to cry if I messed those up ... but I have another 7 days before they are supposed to sprout, so I'm crossing my fingers

I had a complete tomato fit this spring... but they actually grew. The true surprise was the peppers, though, which I was absolutely sure were never going to sprout.

Acara, if you take those bonsai and orchid skills and put them to work in your SFG, you don't have a thing to worry about. Like Megan says, big woop, these were just radish seeds. And who knows, you may have come up with the answer for those who want to start radishes indoors, sprouting and then transplanting at 5 or 6 days.
Look at what you have already done with that giant crack cuke.
I want to hear how your Wild Florida Everglade tomatoes do for you. I looked them up when you first mentioned them and suggested them to my brother on the FL Gulf Coast.
Right now my brother is trying Dixie Sweets. Dixie from this forum graciously shared with me and many others some seeds from tomatoes that had been in her family for years. I sent some of those seeds on to him. He has several that germinated and are out in his garden now.
I won't be able to start mine until March and our climate is really not conducive to tomatoes in general, we don't have enough heat. I know I will have to baby them, but it is all a big experiment to find what works and what doesn't and to have fun when you are doing it.

Acara, I have a 100% consistent return on every topiary, bonsai, and orchid I've ever attempted....every single one of them has died a slow, horrible death, and I swear that the orchids at the garden center recoil in horror as I walk by.

I planted radishes as the first thing in my SFG because I figured it was something I probably couldn't screw up, and at 59 cents for a package, it would be a pretty minor loss even if I did screw it up.

But even *I* -- whose neighbors ask me to come over and touch stuff they don't want growing in their yard, because I can kill on impact -- have had terrific success with my SFG.

So take heart. If you can make the fancy stuff grow, radishes are no sweat.

LaFee .... trick to orchids is to buy the most pathetic looking specimen you can find, or take one from someone who's almost killed it......the beautiful specimens off the rack don't stay that way long & that's probably the reason most folks think they can't grow/maintain them ... so they give up or lose interest. Try it in reverse order (nurse a neglected one back to health) and it will restore your faith & build yr confidence.

My dad got me into orchids at about 4, by setting up "the isle of misfit plants". basically anything that wasn't doing well went to "the island". If I could recover the plant, I got $5..... and five bucks was like hitting the lotto for me back then.


As far as Bonsai ... it actually means "dorked this topiary up so badly that this was the only thing I could think of doing with it". It takes tremendous skill to design/plan somthing that comes out exactly as you planned it ..... not so much if you lower your expectations & are just happy with whatever ends up growing.



Thanks for the positive reinforcement on the seeds though ...... I'm sure stubborness, OCD and insomnia will all get me through this seed-thing