First year for groundhog radishes

[Charles Clear]

All I can say is the deer are really liking them! I added some to my turnips this year. They haven’t touched the turnips but are loving the daikon and groundhog radishes. Deer poop everywhere. If anyone hasn't added them to their plots I encourage you to try them!

 

[Belchertown Bowman]

Thanks, cause they don't seem interested in my turnips either,..

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We find the radishes get eaten first at our place. Turnips a bit later, but deer seem to like them both. It took a few years for the deer to "discover" them both too.

 

[Charles Clear]

We find the radishes get eaten first at our place. Turnips a bit later, but deer seem to like them both. It took a few years for the deer to "discover" them both too.

I agree bowsnbucks! My first turnip plot was barely touched. The deer at my place have progressively eaten them more and more every year. I am really liking the radishes though!

 

[Catscratch]

Deer picked up on radishes rather quickly on my place. Never did acquire a taste for turnips.

 

[Victor Van Meter]

I have planted PT turnips for a few years and they never touch the turnips and rarely touch the greens. Now they will eat the radishes and tops no matter what time of year I plant them.

VV

 

[Kooch]

I added DER into my brassica mix for the first time this year. It was the first to be consumed, then radish tops and some root, then turnip tops. Finally the turnip root.

 

[Charles Clear]

Good to know a lot of you have the same findings. I think next year I will ramp up my radishes, use less turnips, and add more DER. I planted some purple top rutabaga too. I need to go check those out.

 

[Kdog]

I am sure you already know, but you should not plant the radishes in the same plot more than two years in a row due to bacteria build up in the soil. If we plant them, it is every other year in a plot. Not sure we will plant many more as we are in the process of converting about 80% of our plots to Durana.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The mix we use has Groundhog radishes, purple-top turnips, DER, and Pasja hybrid forage brassica. We buy that mix from Welter's Seed and Honey Co. in Iowa. They call it "Big Buck brassica mix." FWIW.

 

[Telemark]

I am sure you already know, but you should not plant the radishes in the same plot more than two years in a row due to bacteria build up in the soil. If we plant them, it is every other year in a plot. Not sure we will plant many more as we are in the process of converting about 80% of our plots to Durana.

Can you explain? What bacteria? And why is it a problem?

 

[Kdog]

Although the uneaten roots remain in the soil to provide organic matter (which is good), repeated, year after year planting of radishes in the same plot is not a good thing because too much bacteria can build up in the soil and be counter productive.

https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/radish-raphanus-sativus-bacterial-soft-rot

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/bacterial-soft-rot/

 

[chucker66]

The deer on my property are scratching through a foot of snow for the radishes and turnips.

Chuck

 

[Charles Clear]

I am sure you already know, but you should not plant the radishes in the same plot more than two years in a row due to bacteria build up in the soil. If we plant them, it is every other year in a plot. Not sure we will plant many more as we are in the process of converting about 80% of our plots to Durana.

lol. Yeah. Thanks. I am aware

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Hah, this year they ate mine to bare dirt by Sept. I had to plant heavy with winter rye to have something for them.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I am sure you already know, but you should not plant the radishes in the same plot more than two years in a row due to bacteria build up in the soil. If we plant them, it is every other year in a plot. Not sure we will plant many more as we are in the process of converting about 80% of our plots to Durana.

If you have a spring fall plant rotation you should be able to plant them every year without problem.
I actually think that using to high of a seeding rate can be as or more of a problem than a poor rotation.

 

[Barndog56]

I'm going on year #5 of radishes and turnips with no problems. I have just one 1.5 acre plot. It never gets tilled or sprayed, just continually over-seeded with the next seasons crops. It contains perennials like ladino, medium red, and yellow sweet clover, and alfalfa, and then gets buckwheat, sunflowers, oats, winter rye, radishes, and turnips broadcasted at their appropriate times. It also has an abundance of purple coneflower, bachelor's buttons, Shasta Daisy, bee balm, anise hyssop, milkweed, and hollyhocks, in certain areas.

With lots of diversity and something always growing, disease and insects have become a non factor. Generally, disease and insects are a symptom of having unhealthy plants, which is a symptom of having unhealthy soil.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Barndog - When you broadcast/over-seed into other things, do you scratch the soil at all or just throw and walk away?? Just wondering.

 

[Belchertown Bowman]

Double what BowsnBucks says,.. Just wondering too

 

[j-bird]

It took my deer several years to take to brassica's. Being a farm country like I am....I think they simply needed a longer learning curve to something other than corn and soybeans. I now see them eating the turnips. I have not planted a lot of radish in the past as the seed size doesn't lend itself to my overseeding practices. I do plan on a few pure fall plots this coming year and radish will certainly be part of the mix. Fair warning....man do they stick in the spring time when they go soft and start to rot! Farmers use them here as part of their cover crop mix so there is far more than the deer can eat and you know when you drive by one of the fields in the spring time.