The Rat-Tail Radish
by John Yazo
Rat-Tail radishes are an interesting vegetable that can be easily grown in your garden or as a decorative plant in your edible landscape, along with making a novel and delicious ingredient in a salad. Their pods have a spicy taste. It is a radish that is picked like you would a green bean, not a root crop. Unique, interesting and decorative all in one. It is also a crop that can tolerate the heat and be harvested all summer long.
They are a crop that likes a well drained soil and a sunny location. The plant grows to a height of 2 to 5 feet and about a foot wide. It has an attractive flower cluster that precedes podding and are white or pink to purple in color with pink pollination lines. Some varieties have a darker purple edge. The pods are prolific and can grow straight up like candelabra, or even twist and curl. Pods of the long purple varieties can also have a reddish highlight and a beautiful sheen.
Sow seeds directly in the garden from mid June to early August for your best crop. It is a crop that will tolerate the heat, unlike the radishes that are grown for there root.
Prepare the soil before planting by thoroughly weeding the bed and digging in about 3 inches of compost or composted manure, then add a half cup of a well balanced organic fertilizer per 10 square feet of surface area. Directly sow the seeds into the garden 6 to 9 inches apart to prevent crowding and cover with a 1/2 inch of soil. Thin seedlings to about 12 to 18 inches apart once they emerge, and you can eat the young tender seedlings than you have thinned out.
Once the plants become 4 to 6 inches tall you can add a 1 to 2-inch layer of mulch to help retain the moisture in the soil and to suppress weeds. Rat-tail radishes need to be grown fast to maintain their quality for eating. Water and fertilizer are very important, lacking of either will produce smaller, hotter and fibrous pods. Do not allow the beds to dry out, check them often and the soil should be cool as well as dark. One inch of water per week is what they need. Following up with a dilute organic liquid fertilizer application of fish and kelp when plants are about 30 to 40 days old will give them the extra boost they need to thrive.
Controlling insects like the flea beetle and root maggots can be done by using a row cover, fast-growing the plants and by harvesting as soon as possible.
Harvest your crop by picking the seedpods when they are mild, crisp and between 6-12 inches long, this is usually 50 to 60 days from the time you sow them. Harvesting the smaller pods can begin earlier. Test for the crispness by snapping the pod in two. The pods begin to become dry, fibrous along with harsh-tasting quickly once they reach there maturity. Harvest them regularly to keep them producing. Use them immediately after harvesting or dampen the inside of a container you are going to store them in,leaving the lid partly open and refrigerate for a day or two. After trimming off the stems the entire pod can be eaten in stir-fries, salads, pickled and even used in dips. The young leaves can be harvested from healthy vigorous growing plants.
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