How to grow radishes that arnt woody and hard.

Cool weather fertile soil. Salad radishes grow fast. Plant them under good conditions and they should be prime ( depending on variety) in about a month. They don't hold long before they get woody and pithy. If stressed ( heat, drought, infertile soil or medium) they do not bulb properly.

Nice pics, Dillard. I am only used to seeing the small round ones that my mother used to buy at most grocery stores. Pic 2 was interesting. It reminded me of a variety called Long something that I saw in pictures only. How does the Pic 2 variety taste?

I just grew some small round ones. I picked them on the 21st day which is what was on the package. They were small, looked beautiful, but were way too spicy hot for a radish. How do you grow them less hot and spicy?

I'm having good luck with French Breakfast and another long kind- good crop of mild ones. I had several bad tries years past. As Dillard said.. so I planted earlier and made sure to fertilize and water.

Try to check descriptions for mild or hot. I wanted to try Watermelon but I think they say hot. Edit.. think I was mistaken on this.

Last fall I had great success with a mild Korean radish- big radishes but you have to shop specialty and be sure it is a mild one. See Altari/Passion Altari/Sushiro here
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/s...

luis_pr said:Nice pics, Dillard. I am only used to seeing the small round ones that my mother used to buy at most grocery stores. Pic 2 was interesting. It reminded me of a variety called Long something that I saw in pictures only. How does the Pic 2 variety taste?

There is not much variation in flavor among the long radishes. It is more vigorous than the French Breakfast types types, grows more like the the White Icicle.

sallyg said:I'm having good luck with French Breakfast and another long kind- good crop of mild ones. I had several bad tries years past. As Dillard said.. so I planted earlier and made sure to fertilize and water.

Try to check descriptions for mild or hot. I wanted to try Watermelon but I think they say hot.

Last fall I had great success with a mild Korean radish- big radishes but you have to shop specialty and be sure it is a mild one. See Altari/Passion Altari/Sushiro here
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/s...

Heat and lack of water are the main stresses leading to hotter than normal radishes. Watermelon is a winter radish, but will grow asa spring radish. Never found it to be hot. Mostly used as a cooked radish. The tops are as good as turnip greens just not as plentiful. I mostly pulled the whole plant chop the tops and cube the bulb, throw them in a pot like turnip greens. In opinion they have a better flavor. I grow other winter radishes like Tae Baek, Minowase, New White Spring but Watermelon is my favorite for eating.

of the salad radishes that I have tried. Early Scarlet Globe and Pink Beauty have been the most reliable.
Dependable and interesting color
Dependable French Breakfast type
Absolute worst excuse for a radish that I have grown

Thanks Dillard. Have you cooked Tae Baek greens and roots that way? My korean radish had big healthy looking tops.
I used Korean radish also as a soup vegetable.
I saw golden radishes at Baker Creek.. wont bother!

Thanks for the very informative reply to my question re radishes. The temp at time of sowing the seeds resonated. It was very warm here in May.

plantmanager said:I just grew some small round ones. I picked them on the 21st day which is what was on the package. They were small, looked beautiful, but were way too spicy hot for a radish. How do you grow them less hot and spicy?

I have found, the smaller the radish, the more bite it will have but radishes planted in warm weather generally have lot of bite.