Tillage Radish

[Eugene]

Trying something different as a winter cover crop and green manure, sowed and harrowed in tillage radish on the garden plot in October. Pulled a couple of radish before the first killing frost and found them to be 6 to 8 inches in length and an inch or so in diameter.

Late January, the tops had died off and formed a ground covering mat. Moved the mat and found that the radish root had rotted off leaving a root shaped hole in the ground.

Garden soil has a high clay content and a hard layer of clay about 12" down. Plan, late summer, after clearing out each section of the garden, sowing more tillage radish. Hopefully an additional growing month will provide longer and larger radish.

[ScottyD'sdad]

If you are in an area with deer, beware. They are a deer magnet! Once visiting, the deer will clean out your garden. I check for cover crop choices, by looking at "deer feed plots", and not planting what is on the list.
Ed

[Eugene]

If you are in an area with deer, beware. They are a deer magnet!

Great. Lots of deer in the area. Plan is to sow the radish after the garden is about finished, which is close to the start of deer season. Hopefully they will show up.

[Gary Dotson]

We planted radishes in our garden too. The garden had gotten drowned out in June and had been tilled under very early, so we thought we'd do the radish thing. They were planted early Sept., the ones I pulled were no where as big as yours. I was under the impression that they would grow quite large, maybe we got the wrong variety.

[ScottyD'sdad]

If you are in an area with deer, beware. They are a deer magnet!

Great. Lots of deer in the area. Plan is to sow the radish after the garden is about finished, which is close to the start of deer season. Hopefully they will show up.

I'd be afraid that they'll come back in the spring, checking for what might be growing. (Unless "deer season", thins the herd, sufficiently.) I stupidly had red clover, as a cover crop, once! Never again!
Ed

[Don McCombs]

Once the deer recognize your garden as a food source, you'll have a difficult time reversing that knowledge. When you see a doe and her fawns in your garden, the torch has been passed.

[Barnyard]

Once the deer recognize your garden as a food source, you'll have a difficult time reversing that knowledge. When you see a doe and her fawns in your garden, the torch has been passed.

That will give my Border Collies something to do.

[Don McCombs]

Bill,

I'm sure you don't have much of a deer or groundhog problem at your place.

[Barnyard]

Bill,

I'm sure you don't have much of a deer or groundhog problem at your place.

Nope, the deer will walk through the lot next door but they stay clear of the fence line. As for smaller four legged creatures, if they get under the fence they usually end up somewhere near the porch for viewing before I have to grab a shovel and put them back over the fence.

[Eugene]

I was under the impression that they would grow quite large, maybe we got the wrong variety.

Pictures on the internet display much larger radish.

What type of field radish I purchased, don't know. The seed came from the local farm and ranch store which has bins of various types of seeds. I purchased 1 lb and sowed the entire pound on a small garden plot. I may have way over seeded the garden. So, I don't know how big the radish would have gotten if planted earlier or used a less dense seeding rate.

I haven't had a varmint problem - yet. There is a dog on the property. But the dog won't even chase rabbits crossing the property.

[torchred89]

Why not just plant turnips?

[Don McCombs]

Deer like turnips even more than radishes. And, I think turnips will winter over.

[Gary Dotson]

Eugene, kinda the same deal here, we found a source on e-bay and bought a couple pounds. We planted them overly thick as well, used about half the seed. I think if they had been planted earlier or we'd had a later frost they would have gotten bigger. We really didn't know what to expect, it was just something my wife wanted to try. It was a lot of fun watching them grow, they were up in 3 - 4 days.

[SONNY]

Farmers here are planting them by the thousands of acres!---must be govt. money involved to make them want to plant something like that! LOL!! ---I prefer my sub-soiler at 3 feet deep to help the ground! thanks; sonny