Two month after seeding.

I haven't paid enough time to my black radish this year. We have plenty of rain this year that took my attention off from the garden. Everything grown wild. Just before my short holiday at beginning of August I pulled all onions out and thinned my radish stand. Since that time my plants get forgotten till now. At this time radish plants overgrow beets plant on the left and carrots on the right.

 
Bolting plant
Some plant are developing well but some are bolting forming  robust stem.

 

 

July 9, 2013

 It is time when I started replanting my extra plant in  open spaces around my garden. See below.

It became also a weed on my lawn. It competes in growth with new grass in the place where I pull out my irrigation supply line. The plant is structured for bolting.

2013 Seeding

While my garden was set to grow I have been waiting with radish seeding that I planned to do at the end of June. I started seeding yesterday on June 28 and I am planning to finish that during this weekend. It sounds like that I have a few field to plant, but in reality I almost have no room in my garden left to my radish. I should not plant potatoes but it is  already here taking my limited space. Below is a view of my garden at the time of seeding.

 The onions that is in the middle supposed to be harvested but it is still here. I decided to put two rows of radish on the sides of onions row. In nearest future it would be enough room for all but when radish start to grow  the onions row should be harvested. The row space between radish is 45 cm (17.7"). A little bit less space between radish and beets on the left and  carrots on the right.

Spring 2013

There is no any spring seeding experiment with black radish this year. My new project with garden extension took all my time and energy. I started this project last fall  but it was not completed.  

Finally garden extension work is done. 

It is noteworthy that today we ate the last two black radish roots from the last year yield in our mixed salad with cabbage, mint, dandelions  and a little bit of fresh greens.

We Have Been Eating It.

In the last fall I made an isolated  storage box in our garage to store vegetables over winter. Although we are having freezing temperature in our garage over cold winter days my storage box was always above freezing point as its one side is our house wall. As I have not temperature control I found that it was even a little bit warmer that it should be for good vegetable storage. Here is the picture how our black radish looks on March 23.

 

We don't cook it. We simple grate it with other row root vegetables  as red beet or carrots and dress with mayonnaises. Some time we cut it in small pieces and we eat straight with dipping in olive oil. As Passover is coming  I guess that it would be a good option for something bitter for Passover eating.

Recently I had a cough. Following endless advises I made black radish juice to cure myself. It seems to me it helped. I also recorded it - http://youtu.be/gxRvo1iSZ1w

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.