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radishes

The Garden in Early October

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October is a usually a great month in my garden. By now, most (but not all) of my summer crops have been replaced by fall-and-winter crops, and I am looking forward to some new vegetables.

Summer crops still in the October garden

Dark purple peppers clustered on a leafy, green pepper plant, still productive in early October.
Purple ‘Oda’ peppers

Your garden may have a lot more summer vegetables still in production, but in my own small garden there are still plenty of peppers. I did pull up a couple of pepper plants, to make room for autumn greens, but the remaining plants are still producing MANY peppers.

The tomato plant that I put into the garden as a seed in the last week of June is covered in green tomatoes, and those should begin ripening soon. That variety is called ‘Winterkeeper’, and I chose it for the long shelf-life of the tomatoes more than for spectacular flavor.

Two green tomatoes on a tomato plant; the variety is 'Winterkeeper', known for the long shelf-life of its tomatoes in fall.

Also in the garden, still productive, is Swiss chard, which is looking better after I removed the caterpillars that had been eating the leaves. We are also still bringing in parsley, to add to salads and soups, and the green onions that have re-grown from top-set bulbs; these are also called winter onions, tree onions, and walking onions.

I didn’t plant the purslane and Jewels of Opar, but they reseed all over the garden, and those plants are providing leaves for us to eat, too.

In addition, my winter-time tea plans are coming along nicely, as the roselle keeps making the main ingredient, the red calyxes that cover the seed pods, for hibiscus-based teas.

Roselle seed pods (left) and the removed and dried red parts, the calyxes, that are used to make tea.

I can’t say that any of these late-season summer crops, other than the peppers, are providing wildly abundant amounts of food, but I do enjoy it all.

Fall and winter crops coming along

My notes tell me that I was supposed to plant most of my carrots, escaroles, and radicchios around the 16th and 23rd of August, but that they didn’t actually get planted until August 26th. Considering that they are only five weeks old, I think the plants look great.

  • Escarole plant surrounded by radishes
  • Radishes growing among the escaroles

I planted more of those on September 2nd and 3rd, along with beets, kale, and watermelon radishes. I started planting salad radishes – many kinds – in gaps between the emerging leafy-greens very soon afterward.

Young carrot plants growing in a rectangular patch. Only the lacy green tops are visible.
Carrot patch in late September

Lettuces, a couple of turnips (trying a new variety), and two tiny cabbage plants went into the garden on those early September days, too, and seeds for black Spanish and more watermelon radishes on September 6th.

The very last greens to go into the garden — just last week — have been spinach and cilantro, because those are so sensitive to heat.

I also planted another small patch of beets that will probably not reach mature size until early spring, since the seeds went into the garden so late.

If you want to plant fall crops now

In my area, north of Atlanta, the first frost date is usually around November 1st. This means that planting time for fall and winter crops is almost over for nearby gardens. However, there are some exceptions.

Onion family crops

These might not be considered fall crops, since most of them won’t be ready for harvest until next June. However, October is the time to plant garlic, shallots, and multiplying onions.

Fast-growing salad radishes

There is enough time for many kinds of salad radishes, most of which can reach harvest-size in about a month. If we get actual cool weather soon, the radishes may need an extra week or two to reach that harvest-size, but you should be able to harvest them this fall.

Very cold-hardy crops

Spinach is the most cold-hardy crop I grow. Some varieties can reach mature size in 45-to-50 days. This is a good crop to plant, if you are late getting the fall garden started.

Collard greens are another option for late-planted fall gardens. Also, some lettuce varieties, such as ‘Marvel of four seasons’, are fairly cold hardy and can reach mature size in the same time-frame as spinach. If all goes well, seeds of these planted now might reach eating-size by December.

Small plants, instead of seeds

Most local garden centers still have plants/transplants of fall vegetables on their shelves. Some of these plants may do well, and others may not.

I visited two local garden centers yesterday, and at one of them all the collard greens had bolted — the central stem was growing tall, and leaves were forming very high on the stem. These elongating plants will not produce well in a garden, even if we get a miracle of cool weather tomorrow.

At the same garden center, most of the cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts plants looked healthy, and so did the cauliflower. Some of those might be worth trying, but they may need protection if we get an extreme cold snap early in winter.

Thinking about our crazy-hot September, an early extreme cold snap seems unlikely, but we may be at a point in time when improbable weather is the most likely of all.

Zinnias in my garden. Hummingbirds are still visiting these.

Why Did My Radishes Split?

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There are two main reasons for my salad radishes to split apart. Both reasons, though, are related to my not paying enough attention to the crop.

Some background — I planted the first salad radishes, several kinds, in late September, but more seeds have gone into the ground since then. Until now, all the radishes have been whole, unsplit, but a few have been a bit spongy, which means some radishes definitely stayed in the ground too long.

Salad radishes harvested in late December from my Georgia garden.

Of the five radishes in the nearby picture, only one has split, but the split is huge. The texture and flavor of this radish, the fourth from the left, was fine, but the little veggie was hard to clean. Dirt really stuck tight to that white, inner part of the root.

Reason 1: Radishes left in the ground too long

One reason salad radishes split is that they have been left in the ground too long. University of Illinois Extension says this about harvesting radishes:

Pull radishes when they are of usable size (usually starting when roots are less than 1 inch in diameter) and relatively young. Radishes remain in edible condition for only a short time before they become pithy (spongy) and hot. 

Radish, by University of Illinois Extension

Reason 2: Uneven watering

University of Illinois Extension adds this note: “A flush of moisture after a period of relative dryness also may cause mature roots to burst and split. Try to avoid uneven moisture availability.”

I haven’t done any watering this fall/winter. I haven’t needed to, because rain keeps falling and the soil never dries out. In the past week or so, though, the sky has dumped even more enormous quantities of water on north Georgia.

Radishes from my garden harvested on the 17th, just a week before that last batch, were not split. A couple of radishes harvested on the 26th were split. I am thinking that the massive rainfall contributed as much as age to the splitting.

How to have radishes that don’t split

Salad radishes from my north Georgia garden.

You can probably guess the logical solution to the split-radish problem: harvest early and put your garden in a less rainy location. That first part of the solution is reasonable, but it can be impossible to move your garden to a less-rainy location.

It is possible, though, to block some of that rainfall with a row cover. A non-woven row cover will let some rainfall through, but not all of it. If I had been thinking more about my radishes, I would have set up a cover for them, to prevent the excessive rainfall from soaking their planting bed.

My experience

My spring-planted radishes grow faster than my fall-planted radishes. In fall and winter, I think I have oodles of time to harvest those little roots. They stay crisp and sweet much longer in fall than in spring! However, the amount of time they can stay in the ground, even in fall/winter — and still be delicious — is limited.

There is one variety that hasn’t split, in any year, in my garden: ‘French Breakfast’. Maybe its longer, narrower shape protects it from splitting. This variety is a little spicier than some of the round types, but ‘French Breakfast’ is great on an open-face butter sandwich.

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Time for a Quick Crop of Radishes

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Plenty of gardeners in North Georgia wait until after mid-April to begin planting vegetable crops, but anyone who is a bit impatient can plant some radish seeds now.

Radishes grow best in the cooler weather of early spring, and they are ready to harvest just 4-5 weeks after they are planted. This makes radishes a great little crop to start the gardening year. Success comes so soon!

It used to be that most radish seeds in the garden centers and catalogues produced radishes that were just round and red.

Now, though, a whole range of colors and shapes are available, which makes pulling the little roots up at harvest time a great adventure. The same patch of garden that grew the pink and white (almost hidden under the pink) radishes in the picture also gave us purple, red, and yellow (!) radishes. All were delicious.

People who are Not From Around Here sometimes refer to radishes as a foolproof crop. I remember, when I first moved to Georgia, reading in more than one book/document, that “anyone can grow radishes.” That statement may be true in a sense, but the red-clay soil that is the base of my garden did not make a radish crop for the first couple of years, no matter how many seeds I set into the ground.

If your garden has been thwarting your radish-dreams, do not despair. The yearly addition of composts and other amendments, and having the soil tested to find out exactly what is needed to balance the nutrients for vegetable production, will soon enough bring plenty of these little beauties to your springtime table.

(Featured photo of radishes from author’s garden. PHOTO/AmyGWh)