Growing Radishes

Delicious crunchy radishes are one of the first of the garden plants out of the ground in the spring. They can be planted as soon as the ground thaws. Radishes require ground temperatures of 40 degrees or so to germinate. If planted in close proximity to adequate growing conditions the radishes will come up when conditions are right. They are basically on autopilot and will take care of themselves.

I've planted radishes in early march and had good results with them growing. If a few get frozen there are typically enough to still have a good crop. Radish seed is also pretty inexpensive in bulk.

Another trick we use is to plant a light crop of radishes over the top of carrot seed. This is a good marker for where the carrot seed is planted. The carrots germinate slowly and are just coming up when the radishes are ready to harvest. The radishes provide some protection for the tiny carrots and are easily harvested or eliminated if they are not needed.

Don't forget to plant succession crops every few weeks. Most people assume that radishes don't grow in the heat of the summer. But we have had good luck growing them in compost with adequate water. They need to be harvested before they get too large or they can get hot.

Radishes are very fun for young children to plant and pick. Even if they are too spicy for young tastes they are still a lot of fun to grow.

Radish seed has very long germination so you can buy bulk ahead and save. Get enough for 3-5 years and you should be fine.

Carrots

I planted our third planting of carrots today. Marked them with over seeding of radishes. I'm trying out a new variety from Amsterdam, along with our standard candy carrots. Planted about 500 feet of row in a double row.

Ten Below on the French Riveria Part II

In our last post we made the observation that, many of the Minnesota "locals" do not realize that South East Minnesota is at the same latitude as the southern coast of France. The Reveria is known for its mild Mediterranean climate and stands in stark contrast to the Minnesota cold.

The reason for this is Minnesota is land locked and is exposed to the Canadian Arctic weather systems. While the southern coast of France has a hugh body of warm water call the Mediterranean Sea to moderate its climate.

But the real key is the amount of sunshine both locations get...they are the same.

So why all the fuss and why does this matter?

Radishes - The Fall Vegetable

Radishes are often thought of as a spring vegetable. But they put on an even better performance in the fall. They can get quite large without getting woody or pithy.

I often wondered why this is and I think I have it figured out...

Sufferin Succotash

Sufferin Succotash is the catch phrase popularized by Sylvester the Cat in the Looney Tunes cartoon series. You didn't know you were going to get a little depression era pop culture in this post.

Succotash on the other hand is a dish made from a mixture of corn, beans and other vegetables.

I use the phrase to describe a new technique for soil building that I have been trying.

 Here is this years version....

Thinking Differently - As easy as 1, 2, 3

Farmers can often circumvent the conventional wisdom and improve their bottom line by just thinking differently.

Let's look at some examples...

Turning Hostile in to Habitat

Spring in Minnesota can be wild and unpredictable. You won't be able to do any serious tillage until middle to end of April. So what do you do if you want to get a jump on the growing season and get things planted as early as possible?

The Radish as a Marketing Case Study

One of the gems of spring is the humble radish.

When we first started selling at the farmers market radishes were gong for 50¢ a bunch. They are way to much work to sell for that, so what we did to be able to sell more is a classic study in marketing...

How to Grow Great Radishes All Summer Long

Radishes are mistakenly thought of as a “flash in the pan” spring crop. This once and done mentality deprives the radish lover of some delightful summer and fall crops.

The key to a continuous supply is to succession plant. Only plant what you will use in a week or two, but plant more radishes every two weeks. If you don’t use them when they are ready, pull them and put them in the compost pile, then plant some more.

In the heat of the summer radishes can become more strong flavored and pithy (woody). A rich environment (lots of compost) that is well weeded and has a steady supply of water, will keep this heat to a minimum. We have had radishes as large as a tennis ball be very nice and not a bit woody using this approach.

Fall is another time when radishes really shine. You can plant and harvest until freeze up.

I’ve mentioned in the post on How to Grow Organic Carrots that radishes can be planted at the same time as carrots and harvested as the carrots are emerging or still very small. They essentially become an edible row marker and protect the carrots for a week or two. Never under estimate the micro climates that a crop canopy can create around the plant. Radishes can shield the very fragile carrots at a time when they are vulnerable. 

Cherry Belle is a good standard radish. We have tried some other varieties with good success. Since they are typically 20-25 days to harvest you can try several varieties in a season.

Be A Carrot, It Is Worth The Wait

A few weeks ago I planted 100,000 candy carrots. This quantity of seeds planted 7 rows 400 feet each or about 2800 feet (about a 1/2 mile) of row. It takes 14-21 days for the carrots seed to germinate and emerge. The tricky part about planting carrots in the summer is keeping them moist enough to germinate if you hit a dry stretch of weather. I have learned to plant carrots at this time of the year where I can get a hose to them to water.

For this particular planting I did something a little unusual in that I planted the rows about 20 inches apart. I normally plant them about 40 inches apart so I can use the rototiller to weed between the rows. So this is about twice the planting density I normally do. I did this to experiment with my new Hoss wheel hoe, which can weed a much narrower row. If everything goes as planned we will have some outstanding and delicious carrots for late summer and fall.

I was reading about how carrots send down a tap root seeking moisture even before the spindly little fronds appear. Sounds like carrots have their priorities straight. They seek moisture and nutrients and anchor themselves before making an appearance on the world stage. Pretty slick trick by a wise master designer. All that going on before we can see anything. No wonder it takes a couple of weeks before they emerge.

You've heard the old adage that if you want to grow a squash it only takes 6 weeks. If you want an oak it might take a couple of hundred years.

Well now, we know that if you want to grow a carrot (and see it emerge) you must be patient for three weeks until the magic is worked beneath the soil. If you want to grow a radish it only take 3 days for it to emerge and the whole life cycle is only 21 days. So the radish is ready to pick when the carrot is just coming up. But the amazing sweetness of the carrot is something to behold and well worth the wait.

As a farmer, the carrot offers a little more challenge and a lot more reward. Isn't it funny how that works.

Be a carrot; it is well worth the wait.

Yellow Radishes

The lighting doesn't do justice to these radishes. But they are yellow, yes yellow. For a limited time we will have these at the Farmers Market.

Reed says they are juicier than the normal red radishes, with a delicate bouquet. WHAT, these are radishes, not a fine wine. Well for a root expert like Reed, maybe there are some subtle things going on.

Anyway if you want to try them we have them for a limited time.

Nice picture Reed, this was from the market last week.

I'll comment sometime on how to grow great radishes in the heat of the summer...that would be a strange concept with our cool rainy growing season so far. But we are getting there, just wait.

Radishes a Disarming Project for Jenna

These stories are from when the girls were very young, June of 1998.

We wash the radishes and count out 10 (or so) and then put a rubber band around them to get them ready for market. Jenna was helping bunch the radishes and asked me if she could put the NECKLACE on the bunch. I usually remove the yellowed baby leaves from the radishes. Jenna wanted to know if it hurt the radishes when I pulled their ARMS OFF. I told her that it didn't hurt and it made them look pretty. So she was merrily helping me DISARM the radishes.

Andrea had a garden party one Friday afternoon to pick radishes with her friend David. They picked and packed 40 lbs of radishes. Andrea was supervising and the end result was excellent. The radishes were spotless, stacked in neat rows, in the tubs. I picked another 40 lbs after I got home. They were premium radishes picked at the peak of flavor and color.

I figured we had so many that we'd have some left over. To my surprise, people hauled them away so fast that we were sold out in about an hour. The cloudy and rainy weather the previous couple of weeks was just perfect for radishes. We did a repeat performance the following week.

The Jedi Master of Root Growing

Reed is our Jedi root grower. He has done an amazing job with this since he was very young. He is very good at planting onions and can do about twice as many plants as two other people.

Two years ago he'd pick, clean and sell 300 lbs of sweet summer onions a week at our market. He would completely bury a six foot long table with beautiful sweet onions. He called this strategy "Pile them high an kiss 'em goodbye".

He also loves radishes both to eat and to sell. 100 lbs of bunch radishes a week was not unusual.

Potatoes is the other specialty crop he excells in. He digs and clean about 100 lbs of nice little baby potatoes a week. When he was little he wasn't heavy enough to get the fork in the ground so we would work together, with me digging and Reed picking the potatoes off of the plant and carefully putting them in the tub we picked into.

He is also very good at leeks. He peels them and clips them, and afterwards they shine; a beautiful shade of white.

How To Get the Absolute Earliest Salad Greens of the Season

Getting the earliest salad greens of the season starts the fall of the year before. You need to prepare the bed where you want to plant the greens the fall before. If it is a raised bed covered with two or three inches of compost it will drain well and warm up quickly once the snow melts.

We try to plant the day the frost goes out or the day the snow melts off. The seed won't germinate until the conditions are right so don't worry if it seems too cold or wet. When the soil conditions are favorable the seeds will germinate and take care of themselves. They are basically on auto pilot at that point and know what to do. If you were to plant these same seeds the fall before the seeds would likely rot or have very poor germination. But planting them in the spring works every time.

I have done this for years and it works great.

On the rare occasion that the season warms up and then turns very cold again you might loose some of the baby plants if  the temps fall below 20 degrees. Planting this early is a bit of a roll of the dice but about 80-90 percent of the time it, this approach is a real winner. If you do get frozen out, just replant quickly. The seed lost is typically only a few pennies worth.

The types of plants that this works for are all frost hardy. Spinach, lettuce, radishes, cilantro, beets, and peas.

Good luck and have fun.

I Can Sell Anything to Anyone

Reed our high school freshman has a "firmly held belief" that he can sell anything to anyone. While not strictly true, this is a very confidence building attitude to have.

It is not unusual for him to say, "Dad we have 30 bunches of Radishes left" or "20 dozen ears of sweet corn left". "Give me an hour and I will sell them all." and he does.

So how is that possible?