Hi folks! Here is a home for any and all discussion on growing out the 2025 radish mix as well as any other radishes you’re raising this year!
I’m in the midst of rebuilding the gardens here at my new home, getting a proper fence and irrigation system in place before planting the bulk of my vegetables. Here in the Central Virginia Blue Ridge we’ve had a few brief storms pass through over the last month, and many spring plants have put on noticeable growth. I’m looking forward to growing some big daikons for eating this spring, and hopefully getting a good seed harvest as well!
I’m sprouting some big daikon types from the '24 radish mix I overwintered in the back of my refrigerator, they should make a lot of seed later this spring! They’re really bushing out despite the hard freezing nights. I’ll add pictures if I can, but I was impressed with their size in my heavy clay soil, and interplanted with my winter rye.
How cold are those freezing nights you mention? Here in the Virginia Blue Ridge, my daikon radishes made it through most of the winter and then died when the temperature got down close to 10°F. We also have heavy clay, and they were planted among young rye grass.
The coldest nights since moving them back outside have been about 20°f, but thats after storring them all in the refrigerator over the winter. It got down to the -30’s this winter, no snow cover. The few radish i left as an experiment were dead come mid December. Wind chills in the -40’s at other times, even the cold hardy kale was dead dead.
But as they are right now they’re doing great with hard freezes that freeze the ground an inch down just fine. Good re-establishing rates too, only 1 has not started bushing out but may have just cut it back too far when storing.
Most of my diakons died, but I have two survivors. Min temperature about -20 F, but brief. A number of times went below 0. I had many more survivors before that last cold snap.
Your two daikons survived sub-zero temperatures?? Woah!
Are they just mulched or have you also used cold covers / other protection?
I’ve been looking around for evidence of freeze-hardy radishes lately; I think it’d be great to put together an overwintering radish mix for the seed share if the seeds could be sourced.
If your radishes put out seed this spring, would you be interested in growing out a portion of the seeds for a future seed share?
Do you have record or recollection of the coldest temperatures your radishes survived before their December demise? I wonder how cold hardy they are, despite succumbing to cold far below zero.
Here in the Blue Ridge, your radishes may have made it through our winter just fine!
Somwhere during the first or second week of December I harvested the best looking ones and the radishes I left out died not long after. I’m pretty sure I harvested before the 0° night as they were forcasting below freezing and worse for windchill.
Last winter our ground never even froze! It’s rare for us but I was really hoping for a second time, haha. But alas I was not so lucky, I do think they could have made it if we had a good snow. So I’m sure they could have made it down there.
Actually I didn’t protect them at all. No mulch. I wasn’t expecting that they would survive, although I hoped they would. I also didn’t expect temperatures that low! One parsnip and a half dozen rutabegas also survived.
If they seed, there should be more than enough to share.
Note that I planted a huge area and had only two survivors out of hundreds of plants. They would be easy to overlook if you weren’t specifically looking for them.
I got the opportunity to grow out a diverse mix of radish seed this year thanks to the seed share program; seeds went out a few weeks ago as a late-spring radish planting, and many a seedling have found life in my garden. Looking forward to the mature radish patch, I’ll try and remember to take some photos to share!
If all goes well they’ll get some good growth, cross pollinate aplenty, and give plenty of seed to share with you all
I planted two seed crops from this mix. The first in my greenhouse in the fall. Then transplanted roots out into the garden in very early spring. It currently flowers. (And I grew it no-till!)
Howdy folks! It’s been a while, and in that while my garden has been growing radishes!
As Seed Steward for radishes I was able to access a diverse assortment of Baker Creek radish seeds via the Seed Share program earlier this season. The plan is to grow out an abundance of radishes, let them cross, and increase the amount of interesting seed moving through the program.
All seeds were broadcast by hand directly into the garden; no irrigation and very little weeding has taken place. The soil these radishes are growing in is poor: clay subsoil with an inch of humus on top.
Here in the Virginia Blue Ridge, it has been a wet year so far. Summer rains have been consistent (almost daily afternoon thunderstorms). Early spring was quite dry in contrast, with the gardens having little to drink through all of March.
Admittedly, I’ve put these little plants through a more difficult (and risky) selection process than I first imagined. I reckon the seed harvest from this crop will be smaller than if I’d gone a more conventional route in growing them. That said, I’m not trying to grow seeds for a conventional garden, and next generation of this crop will be more capable and resilient as a result.
Delightfully, that next generation is currently being formed (in the form of seeds!):
Despite the rough soil conditions, they’ve still found a way.
I’m now prepping garden plots for fall planting, which will include a fall radish mix of more curious varieties from Baker Creek. This time around they’ll enjoy one of the few fertile spots on the land here, and I’m excited to see what they make of it. I’ll trial to see who can survive the Virginia winter if tucked into a nice bed of mulch, while some will be set aside to survive the milder winter of the fridge.
That’s the big update from me. I hope everyone is enjoying watching their gardens grow, and keeping an eye on those radishes from time to time.
What do your radishes look like this time of year?
I had a few (3) diakons survive last winter and seed this spring. My understanding is that they’re not supposed to be cold hardy.
I am going to grow them again this winter and keep seeds from any survivors. They’ll be planted in good soil in one of my garden boxes. I’m planting more diakons as well, to see if I get more survivors.
