questions about growing radishes, beets, and tunips

I planted radishes (purple Plum, round black spanish), beets (chioggia bassona), turnips (purple top milan) ans Swiss Chard and they just don't seem to be growing. Everything but the SC has germinated and emerged but they seem to be growing really slow if at all. I had one good crop with beets a few years ago but have never had the same luck again. What am I doing wrong?

All plants slow down with short daylight hours, add cold soil and they may go dormant, Here, beets, turnips, and radishes that have not made it to harvest size will not usually make it. Mine are ready, but this weeks freezes have burned the tops of the radishes, I don't grow chard so have no experience with it.

Thank you for responding. It's just strange because it really isn't that cold here and the cauliflower, broc., cabbage, lettuse and spinach are doing good. It's just the root crops.

Farmerdill, I planted one chard year before last just for an ornamental. Last year it came up all over the yard, huge, beautiful plants. Some I pulled by the root and gave to neighbors and friends and they replanted them very successfully. Cook it as a substitute for any kind of green in the same manner. Research shows it is highest in nutrition of all. Two plants have already come up in the flower bed and have been moved to the veggie garden. Can hardly wait for them to grow big enough to harvest. One or two plants makes enough for DH and I for the entire season. Just pull the outside leaves and it grows more.

With my style of dirt gardening, I found for root crops to make in the Fall they need to be planted mid-July. July and August are just too hot most of the time for seedlings to survive and get off to a good start.

Like in the above post, it's the short days. It's natural for anything (plants and animals) to want to multiply and grow in the spring (increasing daylight hours) and go dormant in winter.

Texasrockgarden my experience is the same as yours. I know in the distant past I have had success with root crops in the fall but maybe it was just a fluke. I planted radishes on Sept, 3 and a few made roots barely large enough to eat. Most just languished and were put on the compost heap. I planted some white icicles in mid October and while they are beautiful plants, nothing is happening with the roots. I'm going to leave them and hope. I'll plant more in January. Same with carrots and beets. I planted green onions and Red Creole bulbing onions 9/03 from seed and they look like they will really produce well.

I think wintersowing will work for us in zone 8b since I had some good radishes last spring. This past April I finally had the good sense to start keeping a journal of my gardening. So far much of it is a study in what not to do, but I'll persevere and be a wise one someday.

You didn't mean you wintersowed radishes? You just planted them early???

Well pod that might have been a better description. I know I planted them well before winter was over and got to eat them. I get many warm sunny days in the winter so I'm not sure how early they'd come up. I've got plenty of left over seed and will surely try to find out.

I checked my radishes this afternoon and it looks like a little root growth. They are certainly running behind schedule but may yet produce.

The reason I was following this... Nov 8th I planted some pots of radishes. I have tops but slow growing and should have roots by now. I suspect cooler soil temps are the culprit rather than short days. I wondered if a dome (like wintersowing) on the plants would improve the soil temps.

I planted the root crops on Oct.17 along with Broc., Caul., Cab., lettuce,and spinach and 1 tomato plant that is still in there from the spring. I guess that is my question if it is the brief cold snaps or the day length. However, I just realized that the root crops are in a location that gets more shade then the rest of the garden because the sun is at a low angle. Maybe its location, location, location. I really appreciate all the input. How do all of you fertilize? Our soil is rock with alot of lime.

I think short days plus shade can be a big negative. On the other hand in our zone it's real tricky to get it right because I think my first planting had way too much heat.

I have something of an unintentional experiment going on. I planted big pots of carrots, beets and mesclun mix and placed them in the shade of my plum tree because I thought it was too hot at the time and I planned to move them after they germinated. I also planted some in the full sun.

The ones in the sun germinated but never got going good. The ones under the tree got morning and afternoon sun plus leaves have been falling all month to gradually increase their exposure. I never got around to moving them and have been eating mesclun salads for several weeks. The carrots and beets look good but no roots yet.

I worked in some 10-10-10 and used purchased composted cow manure full strength for potting soil. I don't think that stuff has any significant nutrients in it but is good for the texture and moisture retention. I don't see any way to scratch in more fertilizer without really disturbing the plants so I think water soluble fert is probably the way to go.

We start planting here in September and plant thru April. I have beautiful tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, turnips and lettuce growing. The tomatoes are ripening now and have more small ones planted. Tomatoes won't bear here in summer, our nights are too hot.
I've planted more root crops and would like to find a few more seeds, but they're impossible to find in stores now, even though the big field growers are planting their market crops at this time.
Our soil is still warm, my radishes and lettuce came up in 3-4 days.

soil still warm here too--I can grow all of these up until about end of Feb

I would suggest thinning and weeding turnips (and everything) more often than this mess sowed on 10/19--I think lots of moisture when they are small helps

this is today--turnips in middle--toy choi on right, romaine on the left

these were down 11/2--turnips tend to shoot into growth for me (these have not done so--2nd row down from top). But at least they have been weeded and thinned at the correct time (for a change)
=)

Turnips are not my favorite--I'm more of a salad girl

this is the other end of the bed done10/18 (bed above, the first pic is a different area)--you can succession plant like this every two weeks down here until about Martin Luther King Day, these really should be mulched (tomorrow is another day)

this bed had LA Iris in it for 2 years so there might be an Iris sprinkled in there

dmj, your garden looks great. I have english peas growing too.

thanks Cala--those are edible podded kind (I love them!)--I definitely grow things that are good to eat.

The "upside" of being Ike'd is that I have a large number of really good quality fence posts so I've been OP pole bean shopping today on internet. Got one new privacy fence put up in April because I needed it and another in Sept; massively increased vertical growing space will be my new "horizon" this spring.
Debbie

Hey Debbie!
Happy Thanksgiving. Your garden IS looking great. I picked about 60 huge collard and mustard leaves for Thanksgiving dinner, and they were delicious. It was cool yesterday morning, and the remaining leaves were standing up at attention. It's fascinating to see how the plants respond to the warm and then the cooler temps! Thanks for all your advice.

I sowed Chioggia and Bull's Blood beet seeds, and purple top turnips, romaine lettuce, and some carrot seeds yesterday in a small bed. Now I'll hold my breath and see what happens.

The weather here seems to be unseasonably warm. I believe my lettuce in my EB has bolted? There are little seed pods? growing amongst the leaves. What do I do with those plants now?

I've been following BocaBob's and TPlants successes with coco coir and am considering using that medium to start my tomato seeds next season. It certainly seems to be doing great things for their crops!

Hope you had a wonderful Holiday! It's back to work for me in the morning.

Linda

Temps have really been rather normal here for this time of year, not unseasonably warm, in my experience (but I pay attention to this--I have to in my business)--it goes up and down and up and down all winter, every winter. Nothing unusual to see high in low 70's one day followed by high 48 the next. I'm just happy the rainfall has been nice and soft; still dealing with roof/soffit (eaves)/gutter issues here.

I don't have anything bolting--but I don't EB grow veggie's, either. I'm still succession planting and trying to build new vertical growing hardscapes. At the same time I do all the seeding for my business. Also decreasing turf grass areas and building new beds--getting close to eliminating ALL the turfgrass in the back, which makes me really happy. The one positive of having all these extra good quality fence posts around. Starting to wonder what HD might be charging to deliver some cement type stepping stones and other assorted supplies. Might look into that this week.

I don't use coco coir for starting seeds. I already get great quality commercial seed starting mix delivered for all these bulbs--it works great for everything, I can't see changing that. But this does remind me to get in my extra room and start getting my seed starting stand fixed up. I take the lights off of it when not in use, saves storage space and allows that stand to be used for bulbs that must remain dry in summer; mainly my Cape Oxalis collection.

Have a great week!
Debbie

Hi Deb,
Yeah, I'm getting my room ready for seed starting, too. I also take down the fluorescent lights for storage. Unfortunately, I discovered I need to swap out my growing room to the other side of the house to a room that stays WAY cooler in the winter. I think the mater seedlings will like it a lot better growing in that cool air. I ran out of space in the original room last season and moved some seedlings into the "cool" room. They outpaced the others by about 2x the growth rate, and were stockier and less leggy than the others. Live and learn!

I sent you a d-mail about the seed project...

I'm constantly rearranging stuff--I think that process never stops! or least not around here--sometimes I think I spend most of my time rearranging all these plants. I'm working on that seed order--its just I've got about 800 other little "projects" going on simultaneously--the story of my life. If your ever out this way--let me know. Then you can come see the constant "rearrangement" in person.
=)

Okie, dokie, smokie!