Radishes
 

I have never grown radishes and wonder if they are worth the effort. My wife loves them in her salads...and I just wonder if home grown are better than the standard radishes one gets at the store.

Any varities that stand out? I have some room in front of my tomatoes and thought I could try some.

Thanks much!

The only experience I have had with radishes was this year. I grew a "White Box Radish" seeds from seedsavers.org. I grew them in my square foot garden, 16 radishes per 1 foot square. Radishes grow very quickly 30 days DTM. I usually don't like the kind of radishes you get in the store, as they give me heartburn. But the White Box Radish was much milder and had an excellent taste.

In my opinion, radishes are very hassle free thing to grow. They also add a nice touch when you have company, ask them to go pull a couple radishes for the salad. They will be impressed with how fresh your food is.

I like Hailstone, another white variety.

They're really the easiest thing to grow. You should do it.

Yes, on the pods! I have wild radish plants that grow as weeds here. I harvest the pods while young and put in salads and stir-fry. I sometimes eat them raw while working around the garden...spicy!

By pods, are you talking about the seed pods? Do all radishes have edible, and delicious, pods?

love the avatar C-Barb, reminds me of a couple pups I knew.

If radishes were hard to grow and took up a lot of time and space, then yes, I'd say just buy from the grocery store.

But since you can grow a lot in a short amount of time in a small space and grow varieties that the grocery store has never heard of, I'd dedicate a couple of square feet to em to make the wife happy. :)

Have any of you grown Daikons? Now there's a serious radish. :D

My Grandmother used to grow them in her garden. I tried once, but, am too lazy to dig deep enough, so I ended up with mishapen, ugly daikon.

I've grown Daikon (my wife who is Chinese calls them LoBok) as a Fall crop. Did very well for me & as you mentioned, deep digging is necessary for a good quality product.
LarryD

Radishes are defintely worth growing and they are really no trouble at all. They germinate in cool weather so you can plant them very early spring and by the time they are ready - about a month, you can plant something else in the space after harvesting the radishes.

We had our first of the season last night, Cherrybelle, a red variety. Yummmmm!

Just an update...I did find room last year to try two types of radishes: Cherrybelle and French Breakfast. I had problems of trying to grow both in heavy clay soil...some did not form a bulb or came out very small. I did put some down one end of the bed where the compost bin was...so the soil was lighter there...they came out much better. The French Breakfast radishes had a pretty good "zing" to them...much more than the Cherrybelles. Did make my wife happy and I will try more this year...and will make a greater effort to find a spot with lighter soil.

If you would like something different, try sauteed radishes. Mild and sweet. My brother-in-law is so crazy about cooked radishes that I have to grow a whole patch of radishes just to make him happy. Works for cucumbers too.

Cooked radishes. YUM

LoreD

Cooked radishes and cukes...never thought about doing that...but what the heck. I guess you could lightly cook them in olive oil and a bit of seasonings?

My 7 year old son is obsessed with radishes. He loves all of them. I think his favorite is French Breakfast because of the name. I love pink beauty- they are so pretty. We love radishes so much that when our grass goes dormant in the winter, we broadcast out French Breakfast into the lawn and they grow completly in the thatch (we use organic methods on our lawn). No insects bother them there and they are very clean.

My son also LOVES sauteed radishes. He likes them sauteed in a little butter and olive oil dressed with herbs. They cook up like a potato and milder than when they start.

We also grow the winter storage radishes but they are really hot. Slice off a hunk, salt, let sit a while, squeeze off water, eat, drink a swig of beer. My son is not as fond of these but I like them because they are huge (cool looking), good, and can be used in many ways. Market goers love them here.

Tiffanie

[COLOR=#0000ff]Tiff,[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0000ff]The picture you posted is good.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0000ff]For those interested, the large carrot sized radish that is green on the top and white on the bottom appears to be Green Misato. I have grown GM for the past 3 years and I like it the best of the winter radishes I've grown. Some are hot but some are milder. They require 60-70 days to grow so you have to plant them in mid August here. Do not plant winter keeping radishes in the spring as they'll bolt as the days grow longer because winter keeping radishes are for late summer planting with 60-80 days to maturity. I pull them in late October or early November after they'd been hit by several frosts. I store them in a plastic grocery bag with a damp napkin. This variety stores about 6 months, I have about 5 pounds left.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0000ff]I have about 10 pounds of Round Black Spanish. I have pickled them (salt for 30 min, rinse, cover with rice vinegar) but other than that I have no idea what to do with them. Recipes?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#0000ff]Tom[/COLOR]

Tom,

I admit, I just cook them. I cube them and sautee them like the others. They can also be grated over salads. I bet Andrey would know what to do with them. I am getting some seeds from him that he listed in the SSE yearbook.

I have grown as many of the types as we could find seed for. So far, I haven't grown one I didn't like. They are all very different. I sold many at a local growers market and it was amazing how many people came out of the woodwork that grew up eating the various varieties from their homeland.

You are right, sometimes the green/ white ones (the variety I grow is "green meat" from Kitazawa) are very sweet. I guess it depends on how often I decide to water them. You are also correct in that they will bolt quickly. We have a small planting window here in early September and then they grow through the winter. If there is a big cold snap followed by warm temps. they are done for!

Andrey... can you help us???

Tiffanie

We planted a bed of Daikon Radishes one Fall and harvested in the Spring. We did not need to till the garden again for a few years! Best deep tillage technique that I've used.

Kids love the Easter Egg radish mix (red,purple and white). We add a yellow radish from SeedsFromItaly for another color.

We also like the red meat or "Watermelon" radish (from Johnny's). We slice them into large beautiful pink disks.

Tom, I saw a recipe in Will Weavers book on Heirloom veggies. It goes something like this: Grate winter radishes, salt and let stand. Rinse and toss with oil and vinegar. Never tried it, but sounds tempting.

I've heard that Daikon-type radishes have been planted on soils that are compacted in order to break them up and bring minerals to the surface.

I love to saute white icicle radishes (with about an inch of their greens left on) in butter and garlic... wowsa... so very yummy.

And there is just nothing like going out to the garden for the very first harvest of the season, pulling out a radish, spraying it with the hose and CRUNCH! Oooo it's so good!

Lisa

Lisa, you're making me hungry and I already ate lunch :lol: !

White icicle is my son's second favourite (although I don't think he is too picky with the spring types).

Maybe I can squeeze in one more planting of radishes before it gets too hot ;) . We have eaten all of ours already :( .

Tiffanie

French breakfast is probably the most commonest radish and easy to grow-also the most tastiest.

But a real cracker of a radish that used to be sold by thompson and morgans was called Red Prince,- huge crunchy radishes about two and a half inches across and with a real mild nutty flavour-best radish I ever tasted.:arrow:

I planted a Easter egg variety with different colors and one that's called scarlet topper (or something similar)last week. I like my radishes pretty mild, I'm a wimp. I didn't know you could cook them, that sounds interesting. I grew French Breakfast last year. I planted them late, so some of them were pretty strong.

Tyff

I just thinned all mine. I have the round section with Hailstone and Purple Plum and the skinny section with White Icicle and Long Scarlet. My dad always grew White Icicle when I was a kid and I remember it as being pretty pungent, but we might have left them in the garden too long. My dad traveled a lot so maybe he wasn't around to pull them out when he should have. I hope these turn out nice. I like Hailstone, another white variety. I grew Long Scarlet last fall and this is my first time growing Purple Plum.

[quote=shelleybean;51173]we might have left them in the garden too long. [/quote]

Yes, I've heard that, along with anything that slows their growth, i.e. dry weather, bug attacks, etc. will really cause them to be extra HOT.

Lisa

I can afford to baby everything in my garden right now so I won't let that happen. And on top of that, I need to get all my spring veggies in and out to make room for my beans this summer. They have to go in the same bed and these are all pole beans so the sooner the better. Thanks!

I can't grow the darn things...*sigh* easiest thing in the world to grow and I can't!

Thanks to everyone for all the good radish info!
Can you eat radish greens too?

Honu,
I'm certain that you can, tho' I think you'd want to cook them until very tender. The summer radish greens are prickly, like turnips. I've read they are very high in vitamin C, tho' that's not really surprising.

Lisa

P.S. I've got summer radishes germinating that I sowed 2 weeks ago, and I sowed a second crop today! Can't wait!

Thanks Lisa! This thread inspired me to order some Hailstone, Cherry Belle, Pink Beauty, & Plum Purple from Sandhill.