Growing Daikon

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Many summer residents and gardeners plant early vegetables every year, which are harvested in early to mid-summer. And it turns out that in the middle of summer one or two beds are released. What to do with the vacated space at this time?

You can try to plant seedlings, but the harvest will be only if you have a rather warm region and a cold snap comes in late autumn. You can leave a piece of land to rest by fertilizing it. And you can plant a daikon. After all, this delicate, incredibly tasty root vegetable can be planted until the end of summer!

What is daikon?

Daikon, a large white succulent root of moderate pungency and aroma, is a Japanese radish. But, unlike our well-known native radish, this root crop does not contain mustard oils and is softer in taste. Daikon is very juicy, tender and crunchy. I think it tastes like a mixture of radish and radish. By the way, in our country, daikon is called not only daikon, but also white radish (although in fact it has nothing to do with white radish), and sweet radish.

Daikon planting conditions

Daikon is sown in the ground with seeds no earlier than mid-July. You can plant this vegetable until September. The only clarification is that if you plant it during a period when the air temperature at night drops below 10 degrees, then at night it will have to be covered with a film.

The best predecessors for "white radish" are any pumpkin (melon): pumpkins, melons, watermelons, cucumbers, zucchini and so on.

Why is it undesirable to plant a daikon before mid-July?

The reason lies in the length of daylight hours. In spring and early summer, the daylight hours are constantly increasing and the day is quite long. This contributes to the fact that the daikon "goes into the arrow", that is, throws out peduncles. It takes a short day of light to form a good large root.

Landing daikon

For planting, you need to prepare the soil: dig well or loosen the soil, add a little fertilizer, such as superphosphate. After that, give the garden a "rest" for a day or two. Then loosen again and you can start forming the beds.

If your soil is infertile, and you still want to grow a daikon, then you will have to make a little more effort. By the way, I have just poor soil at the present time, depleted. After loosening the beds, we make holes at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other and 60-70 cm deep, while removing the infertile soil (I pile it up to the humus to scatter it around the garden with humus in the fall). Then, in the resulting pits, pour a mixture of purchased good soil and peat with the addition of superphosphoric acid (fertilizer is added in the amount of 1 teaspoon per one well). Now fill the holes with this mixture. After that, a little (about 1 dessert spoon) of ash is added to each "hole". Everything, you can start planting.

The method of planting seeds does not depend on the fertility of the soil, so the further actions are the same. Seeds are embedded in holes at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other to a depth of 3-4 cm. Water. And we leave the bed alone until shoots appear.

Daikon care

Caring for the daikon is very simple: weeding and watering as needed. The main thing is not to allow drying out and excessive moisture of the beds. After each watering, it is advisable to slightly loosen the soil.

You can feed with complex fertilizers, but when growing this vegetable, it is better to under-supply nutrients than to "overfeed" it, since you can get a chic tops with a small root at the exit. And we need - a gorgeous spine with small tops.

Storing daikon

Daikon does not require any special conditions and is perfectly stored all winter in the basement (the main thing is that the basement is dry!) Or in the refrigerator in a vegetable drawer. The daikon can also be stored in the basement in a box of wet sand.

And a little about the benefits of daikon

Many of my friends are perplexed: why grow this vegetable? What's so special about him? Well, not as bitter as a radish - but you can salt the radish and sprinkle with vinegar to make the bitterness go away.

In fact, daikon is a very healthy vegetable. It contains many different vitamins, fiber, mineral salts and even protein. And also in daikon there is one component that helps to heal wounds and has a healing effect, as well as killing microbes. This is lysozyme. It is thanks to its content that crushed daikon can be applied to wounds for disinfection and early healing.