Radishes for 2010! Anyone growing them?

OK, whats your fav, whats your secret! When are your best growing times! WHne do you start?

Show us the bounty!

I like the white globe radishes, but for the life of me, cant think of the name of them!

I also like the mild red rounds!

I dont have seed yet and am thinking of which to try!

Right now, the Asian radishes are coming on. In the spring, European radishes are norm in the spring, planted as soon the ground dries out a bit after the spring thaw and at about two week interval til hot weather. Hailstone, Burpee White, Philadelphia White Box, White Beauty are popular round cultivars. Icicle for a carrot shapesd cultivar. My best performer is a red, Early Scarlet Globe.

Early scarlet globe thats the one red I like!!

Still thinking on that white globe, it was soooo very sweet and tastee!

Hmm ground dries out? Here I am prettuy wet for a loooong time.. will have to pencil in though around the middle of March to make sure I have my seed by then.

I did not do any fall plantings.

I am harvesting radishes now. I can grow them from now until late May/early June. I grow an heirloom called "watermelon radish," champion, cook's mixture, zlata and one other red. We like spicy radishes.
This photo was taken last January

Awesome garden there Calalily!

For the life of me I am still thinking on the names of those raddish I grew and loved so much.. it was a white one and soo sweet, they made a salad all themselves

I like White Icicle best. They aren't as pretty but I like the taste and they seem to hold their quality better.

Nope, thats not it.. I will recognize the name when i see it, Gads I hate these silver moments! LOL!

Soz, those are really good though eh?!

I like them all, but my first good batch is just now ready, the heat we had a few weeks ago riuned my first run, --I just put about 4 inches of manure over my sugar sand ,till it in and plant, --always works for me, --

I'm growing Chinese Red Meat,Long Blk Spanish, Round Blk Spanish (HOT), Purple Plum, Scarlet Globe, and Sparkler White Tip. I don't like them at all but my kids do. They must taste something different then I do because what I taste nobody would like. Yuck!

The Chinese Red meat/Watermelon radish is great cooked with its greens like you would turnips. In fact I prefer most of the Asian radishes cooked.

The only way that I have found that I can eat radishes is in Kimchi. Otherwise they taste like hot dirt to me. But my kids will eat a whole bunch at one time, it must just be me.
Lisa

Farmerdill-Do you mind explaining the difference between Asian and European Radishes? Do they take longer to mature? I get most of my seeds from Baker Creek and they don't put DTM (dirt to mouth) on many things.
Thanks,
Lisa

European radishes are small and hot. Usually have DTM's of 20 -35 days. Usually used in salads and as garnishes. Examples: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=1&subcategory=473 Asian radishes are big roots, usually mild with DTM's 50- 90 days Examples http://www.evergreenseeds.com/orientalradish.html

I am growing asian radishes and some very old school European radishes that like colder weather than spring radish do...

I sewed a winter crop of 3 colors of german beer radishes and that watermelon radish for winter and early spring picking.

Wow, so much to learn and so much to try. Maybe I will like the Asian radishes better. Some of the European varieties are much hotter then others, the Purple Plum isn't near as hot as the Round Black Spanish. I do have alot of luck here with types of veggies that are native to Thailand.
Lisa

Lisa,
I grew the german winter radishes for the first time last year and really like them. They're not at all hot but kinda sweet. Simular flavor as turnips.

I also tried the rat tail radish last year. You eat the seed pods rather than the root.

I beleive the ones I am looking for are the French breakfest but theones I recall are all white. All I am seeing is red with white meat!

I ahve some called french breakfast but I believe they're red

The French Breakfast types all have about half and half red tops and white bottoms on a half long radish. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/product.aspx?category=1&subcategory=472&item=620 http://www.groworganic.com/item_SNV8144_PVFS_Radish_French_Breakfast.html?welcome=T&theses=6238523
http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/radishes/radish+fire+%27n+ice+-+packet+%28300+seeds%29.do
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS324US324&um=1&q=radish&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=21, The only long type white European type radish that I am aware of is the white Icicle. There are two variations of this one http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/65422/ and http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/106493/

Farmerdill you make my brain hurt.

I have grown Johnnys french Breakfast type, --and have some now, --they work well for me, -- Michael

here is french Breakfast type, white Icicle, and China Rose

Boy, Im sure they were white and round. Very little if any red. Some may have had a slight purple hue near the greens but very light if at that. It could have come in on a trade marked as such, but whatever they were then they were delicious. I remember a white globe type raddish and there were some reds, but the reds were not what I am recalling in the taste.

The whites im recalling also got huge....bigger than a pingpong ball thats for sure.

Owell! Guess I need to try some other varieties to taste test!

Well, thanks for the URLs there Farmerdill.... I will take a look! Maybe something is there... that will look like it.

Nope those are not them either michealp! But thanks for showing them!

Blossom you have described a turnip. Turnips taste similar only sweeter than radishes when young. The growth also can be the same. There are varieties of turnip that are for the roots and others that don't even make a root. I think it's entirely possible that's what you had and since the seeds also look alike, it would have very easy to get something mislabled. I will eat turnip greens if someone else washes them but I love the roots. They're every bit as good as an apple to me. They're also good cut in bite size chunks, steamed and tossed with butter, salt and pepper.

Burpee had a very large white radish

the germen beer radishes get big. I have them in red,blue and white. The white especialy had a sweet turnipy flavor

The Diakon radishes are good...They are long and slender.

Larkie

LOL! Farmerdill, I checked out burpees and they do have a white raddish... but yeah, the purple top turnip looks similiar to what I had, but I swear it was no turnip! Could be wrong! Whatever it was they were delicious. to bad I lost the seed on them 2 years ago.. without any return.

Ok, thing for me to do is get brave and try some newbs!

Now my brain is hurting!

This message was edited Nov 2, 2009 7:20 AM

There are solid white turnips too. I surely wish I'd planted some.

there are some soft ball size white turnips , sold at road-side by local growers, here, they are very sweet and crisp, I have no idea what variety they are, -- but for all around eating pleasure I love the Diakon I grow here in the winter, some get 5 pounds, -- they are great in salad or cooked lots of ways, -- but the tops are not so good raw in salad, --

I'm doing the French Breakfast. I think I may have gotten them from the Italian Seed people. Just planted a couple of weeks ago, then it started raining, and raining, and raining. Not that I'm complaining about rain. I know I should have planted in spring but just wanted to see what all I could grow in fall as this is my first year for fall anything. They look OK to far. I may have to look for those beer radishes for next spring though. Is that German possibly?

The turnips do sound good. I am tempted to try them.

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/turnip.html

I just got my seed order today that I placed last Thursday. I could kick myself for not getting the one named Tokyo Market. I'm through ordering this year but will keep this in mind for next year.

Michael that one named Shogoin sounds like the huge one you're talking about.

At the bottom of the photos there's a link to the seed list and they have a monster white radish.

I grow Everest Daikon, in warm weather, and year around here, as it takes the hot weather, --Shogoin is a very large radish, and quite good, 6 inches or more in diameter, ----the biggest one I know of is Sakurajima Mamoth --the propaganda says they can reach 100 pounds, -- not that big here, but still the largest I have seen, --Summer Cross, and April Cross,- also do well here

If I saw something that big I'd think I was hallucinating and really freak out. What on earth does one do with something that big? Do they really stay nice in the hot weather? Do you have them in partial shade? I sure would like to have radishes in the summer.

I tried a gold turnip last year that was super good..greens weren't as good as the purple top greens but the root tasted like a bit of turnip and a bit of rutabager(sp?)..Yummy

Everest Daikon will grow and stay nice in the summer here, and all year round, -- April X is planted in early spring, summer X is planted spring to mid summer, If I had to have just one, Everest will do well for me all the time, and I can keep planting a few every month all year round, -- if you have a market for white icicle [farmers market] the Everest can be harvested before it is huge and makes an impression in the summer when all the other radishes at the market look terrible, --

Here are the three white turnips that I grow. Shogoin is the best all around http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/124389/ ; White Lady is excellent and more mild in flavor than regular turnips http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/104137/, White Egg is an antique variety that is quite tempermental to grow, but is somewhat traditional in the south. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/119218/. Ther are quite a few white turnips on the market that I have not got around to trying.