Pathetic Radishes again

[Marb67]

Well here I go again with failing, pathetic radishes. I sowed them in early autumn in used compost, cat litter tray in greenhouse. Add to that the mild winter and still they are rubbish. Started promising but getting smaller and more pathetic by the day. Touch some of them and the top of the plant comes off at the stem. No sign of slugs. Same for kale, rocket and spinnach in greenhouse border. Obviously i cant even grow anything well through winter in very mild weather.


Ps, this site yet again turned my image the wrong way.

[veggiechicken]

If the top of the seedling is coming away, the soil is probably too wet and the stem is rotting. It looks wet in your photo. Do you have plenty of drain holes in that tray?

[Marb67]

Its not wet. The soil is dry. I have not added water. There is dampness in the air because of the climate at the moment which I can't do anythng about.

[Alison]

What sort of radish are they? I've never got much of a crop from ones down in the autumn.

[bearded bloke]

I sowed them in early autumn in used compost, cat litter tray in greenhouse.

Do you have plenty of drain holes in that tray?

Probably not VC holes would kinda defeat the original purpose of the container

Ps, this site yet again turned my image the wrong way.

Ahhh, there is a preview button you can use to check that issue is not occuring if it is then do what we do & save it on your computer & rotate there before posting

[veggiechicken]

Probably not VC holes would kinda defeat the original purpose of the container

Aaah but, I assume that nobody would plant anything into a tray that didn't have drainage holes. So its not so much a question of whether there are holes, but whether there are enough holes

[Greenleaves]

Heat is just one component required, are the days long enough for radish?

[Scarlet]

Same for kale, rocket and spinnach in greenhouse border. Obviously i cant even grow anything well through winter in very mild weather.

Ps, this site yet again turned my image the wrong way

I think you have trouble because you don't follow the "rules". You need to sow at the correct times, you cannot grow against the seasons. Nothing grows through winter even if the weather is mild. There just isn't enough daylight.
When you say planted in "early autumn" what month do you mean? Most veg will stand through winter and you can pick it, BUT there will be little growth. Starting seedlings in a non draining tray is a definate no no. Your seedlings look as if they have suffered "damping off" - this often happens when seeds are sown under glass when light levels and temps are low.
Usually radish is sown March -August. What variety are you growing and what are the advised planting dates given on the pack? Last dates I've ever sown radish is September.

Uploading Photos: are you using an iPhone to take your photos? These images are too big to upload without them being rotated. To ensure they are uploaded the correct way, crop the photo slightly before uploading - it works everytime. #tip supplied by Sarico

[Aberdeenplotter]

There is a ''growing season'' in which we have the heat and light levels necessary for growth. Couple that with using spent compost so there is nothing to sustain any growing plants.

You say there is damp in the air and used compost will be infected with pathogens.

The plants rotting at ground level is symptomatic of damping off disease.

Bottom line, to grow anything successfully you have to give it half a chance and I feel you haven't done that. .

[Marb67]

I have been advised in the pas t that spent compost is good for radish growing. I sowed them in September and they got off to a good start. I didn't know about pathogens etc so I will take that onboard. Thanks folks. Back to square one.

[veggiechicken]

Marb, I've always struggled to grow radish so last year set myself, and others, a challenge http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...5-a_83072.html
Have a read! You may pick up some tips from the thread as we didn't all succeed!

[Marb67]

Thanks veggie hicken, i will certainly have a read. Interestingly a couple of years ago a white raddish I grew for about a year matured in winter to the size of a small turnip. Chopped up it was delicious but that was another freak mild winter. Also, the raddish that went to seed is still flurishing in the garden now with all the leaf which I sometimes pick for salad as well as the seed pods.

[veggiechicken]

Something similar happened here. Radishes appeared in the middle of the rhubarb!
I must have emptied some failed radish-sown compost, onto the rhubarb bed. It was only when they started flowering that I realised they were radish, not weeds. Yet, whenever I've tried to grow them properly they've been awful.
My little experiment this year helped me see where I've been going wrong. Believing that they were easy to grow, I hadn't given them enough care. I'd sown them in open ground, too thickly and not thinned them out. Even in the margarine tubs, I was sowing too thickly. I'd also not been picking them early enough so they were tough and woody.
Hopefully, this year I'll do better. Hope you do too

[kathyd]

This may be totally irrelevant if the issue is damping off or unseasonal sowing, but ... if radishes are part of the brassica family, it's possible that they may suffer from cabbage root fly. These will chew through the roots and stem under the soil until the top of the plant falls off when you touch it. They attack quite small plants, even large seedlings still in trays and pots, so it's worth covering them over with a light fleece as soon as they emerge. I've lost all sorts of small plants to the little blighters in the past before I've realised what's going on, or before it's struck me that whatever it was is a brassica!

In terms of growing over winter, if you have a greenhouse you 'should' be able to grow the over wintering lettuces 'winter density' and 'winter gem', which you sow from autumn through to spring. I did last year, and I have a few this year in my polytunnel too which look OK so far, touch wood. Also pak choi and Chinese cabbage (brassicas again!) if you sow at the right time, and early peas and broad beans... and stick some early spuds in from Jan/Feb if it's mild enough - so you don't need an empty greenhouse, you just need to be selective about what's happy over the winter .

[Marb67]

I can't see cabbage root fly being active after summer. What gets my goat is the fact that all the bird seed from your feeder that falls to the floor always seems to sprout very healthy foliage in all weathers.