Bolting in numbers - Выход в стрелку в цифрах

In this post I want to share results of my small experiment with four different seed sources. It wasn't surprise for me to see the difference in favour of Russian material. The explanation is simple. While in USA and Canada we talk about heirloom black radish seeds Russians talk about different developed varieties backed up with registration and genetic maintenance.

Harvest - Уборка урожая

We are expecting minus nine this night and I decided to finish my garden. Although several undeveloped radish plant still left in the ground for my further observation. Please note that I had four different seed sources. The one with white and elongated roots is the popular Russian variety Graivoronskay (ГРАЙВОРОНСКАЯ). It is not black but it still pungent as black one.

At the end of the summer

In Canada officially summer starts on June 21st and finishes on September 21st. You don't fill always summer in Edmonton in September like it might be in Toronto or Vancouver. But September of this year was really warm and last weekend temperature reminded good days of July. So far my black radish is still in green and it is still shooting for flowers. I have to pull out another 3 bolting plants.

 

 

 

Still bolting - September 4

Today I pulled out three plants with the sign of bolting. I thought that my August record for bolting would be the final count but here three plants more with root weight 45, 50 and 130 g.

My Friend Experience

Friend of mine Hugh, who is a devoted gardener, decided to try  black radish. The package that he bought was not specific about time of seeding and he put seed in soil in early spring. It was no surprise for me that all his black radish  plants bolted. I didn't know about this till I call him at the end of June with offer to try black radish. I gave him some Oregon origin seeds with a hope that he will be more successful with late seeding as his gardening on open field with no trees around to shade the garden.

Since that time I've got two email from him as follows.

1.
"I planted some just after the July long weekend then again 10 days later. The July long weekend planting is bolting some and the 10 day later has a couple plants bolting. It may be due to the heat we have had lately. Just for fun I did a planting on Aug 1 and its doing fine. I will take some pictures. Everything else in the garden is doing just great. I should have some sweet corn, cantaloupes and watermelon ready next week. Even the soybeans are doing good and have pods - could have vegetable beans to harvest by next weekend!"
 2.
"Unfortunately my garden was hit by hail on Thursday afternoon and the radish is not looking pretty. I will take pictures. If it makes it I will let you know. Sweet corn is just coming on and then this hail!"

Two months of growth

If your read my previous posts you should know that all spring seeding ended up with bolting plants. Today is two month of the most recommended day of seeding. There is some bolting any yet but not like with early spring and early summer seeding.  I found interesting numbers of bolting plants related to the seed origin. I am going to present those bolting numbers latter as I still counting it. So far crop looks promising even it was damaged again by quarter size hail. The picture of recent crop is below.

 

Under attack

I have a few plants of black radish standing along. Those plants are under attack. I think it is flea beatle. I noticed one on my photo, but picture resolution was not good enough to demonstrate it here.

 

Reasonable outcome

Although June 2 seeding plants continue to bolt it was reasonable seeding for early eating. Today I pulled out another 4 plants.

Bolting in progress and roots also.

Today I pulled out more plants seeded in early June due to bolting. Compare to early spring seeding we had a good size roots.  We ate it grated with red beet and carrots topped with fine cut parsley.

Below are the plants seeded at the end of  June. They are slowly recovering from the recent hail damage. Two row of garden cress will be ready to salad soon and they will go. Further I seeded dill between radish rows but it is still not visible on the picture. You can see also dry lawn clipping that I use for mulching. It is from my neighbour lawn as I don't collect lawn clipping. By the way the distance between radish rows is 42 cm (16.5").

July 12 Hail Storm Damages.

We  do not expect snow here  in July but falling ice from the sky is always here. The hail storm came at night  July 12. With the hope for the best I slept till morning. When I wake up I see saw the mess but it was not so bad. Fortunately our area was not effected as others. It is still  fresh in my memory the picture of my tomato plants a few years ago when only main stem left after the hail storm. This time all tomato plants looked well. The main damages were on my new seeding of black radish.

The most recommended Black Radish seeding time

In my first post I mentioned that last year I seeded on June 2. This year I seeded on June 30 that is almost the same day especially if you take in consideration that it is a leap year and, due to added day in February, summer solstice came one day early. From Internet I found that the end of June is the most recommended time for seeding in our latitude (53). recently I've got two packages of Black Radish from Russia. One of those is very specific about seeding time - June -25- July 5.

When I asked my Russian friend to find me a few seeds of famous Russian variety Graivoronskaya, (ГРАЙВОРОНСКАЯ)that many gardeners like so much overhere, she told me that in Russia Black Radish is seeded at the day of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. In Russia it is July 12 as the Russian Orthodox church is on Julian calendar but for other living on Gregorian calendar it is June 29. I don't know when such tradition get established and should I trust it or not. If it goes back to the time when Black Radish arrived to Russia we have to turn clock back about 6 days for sure to match the sun position for that day. The most important message for me that in Russian the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul closely associated with summer arrival - the time when nights get warm. For me it means there is no more cold nights to trigger vernalization (less changes for bolting) and it is time to seed Black Radish. Feeling a warm of summer in my garden, I seeded black radish and next day we had a garden party for the first time in the season .

After 3 month of growth

Today my expremental plant, that I started indoor and replanted outdoor (see my previous publication for this plant history), showed sign of bolting and I digged it out. There is good news that I've got good size root, but there is a bad news also. The root is light and it does not look perfect with a lot of laterals.

 

 

 

Garden Extention

Getting close to my target black radish seeding day I recognized that there is not much space left to my black radish. So, I decided that my garden need another extention. It is third one since we moved to this house.

 

 

Black Radish - early seeding failure

In my previous post I mentioned that my black radish started to bolt. Today I pulled all of them that have a sign of putting growth in the main stem. But some is still left growing without forming main stem.

My experimental plant started to bolt

June 14/2012. It is more than two week left to my target seeding date and my black radish plant from experimental early seeding started to show sign of bolting.

I cut all flower stems and left plant to see what will happen next.

Meanwhile my experemental plant that I seeded indoor and replanted outdoor has no sign of generative development and I am looking forward to taste it soon.