I cannot grow a radish for the life of me.

[Vinca]

I've been gardening for decades and have never been able to grow a decent radish. The few that actually get big are eaten by something. Usually the leaf part grows and the red part turns into a long, skinny root. This is a huge embarrassment for me because I can grown just about anything, start bushes from cuttings, perennials from seeds, etc. But I can't grow a darn radish! Do you do anything special to them?

[asdjrocky]

1. This is my first year gardening,

And I've had no real luck with the radish so far. They are about the size of a pearl onion, and not really round, but more oblong. The taste though, is pretty good. I'd just like a big fat round one for a change. Wish I had advice to offer. I have read that they like lot's of water and cool soil, so perhaps it's too hot for them. Here where I live it's very warm, 90's to the 100's, and there's lots and lots of sun.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Use floating row covers to keep the insect damage to a minimum.

Radishes need warm enough condition to grow rapidly but not hot weather. They're also pretty fussy about water. Try French radishes (long cylinder shaped ones rather than round.) They grow to full size about a week sooner than globe radishes and pretty much jump out of the ground.

I have given up on growing some things because I don't seem to have the knack.

[Vinca]

3. Maybe I'm not getting the water right. I'll try French radishes and see what happens.

My luck has been so notoriously bad over the years I bought the cheapest seeds I could find this time around. That probably wasn't wise.

[bhikkhu]

4. I'm growing daikons now, in the lettuce bed

If anything they attracted the attention of the slugs long enough for me to catch and evict them, safely away from my lettuces. I don't know if I will end up with any respectable radishes, though. They seem to have gone right to seed, and no sign yet of bulb growth.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Join the club

I've never managed to grow decent radishes either.

[ThomWV]

6. We keep them growing all summer long

I have two little radish beds and we grow and pick all summer long, actually from early spring.

The soil I have them in is made up of 100% composted cow manure, it is in a raised bed that is a little over 2 feet deep. I gotta admit you could grow just about anything in that soil but we've grown them equally well in some pretty nasty clay and rock strewn hillside.

I only plant small plots, maybe 4 or 5 rows that are only about a foot and a half long. I scratch out a grove in the soil and am pretty particular about spacing the seeds about 3" apart. I cover them and lightly water between the rows, not on top. The sprouts emerge in several adays and once all of them have come up its time to mulch them. I use a fine mulch on them, peat moss. I bring it right up to the sprouts and cover to a depth of about a half inch, maybe deeper if the sprouts are tall. After that we don't do much, maybe water it down pretty good if the weather has been dry but other than that about 3 weeks later we are into Radishes. When the first of them is ready to pull we plant the second patch right next to the first and after that we simply alternate plots about once every 3 weeks. We don't do anything special for them. We start planting them sometime around the end of April or the first of May and keep on planting them until mid October. I slice them thin, salt them lightly, and eat them like potato chips.

[Vinca]

7. Thanks for the info. I don't use raised beds, but maybe I should try it

for radishes. I do mulch everything with hay. I'm determined to get a crop of the darn things!

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. I had good luck with them this year,

I bought some Watermelon Radish seeds and was going to plant them but it kept raining, I missed my planting "window". so I looked around and found about 10 empty 3" pots. I filled them with potting soil and three seeds in each pot, and kept them on a cart, watering them a little to keep the soil moist, I moved them in at night/rain and then outside in the sun. When they grew about 5" tall and the ground was dry enough (about two weeks) I transported them. They all grew. :P :P