Saturday, October 23, 2010

Daikon (暇をつぶす~大根)

While I was waiting for the taxi yesterday for Rayyan appointment with the nutritionist at the Women’s and Children’s hospital with Rayyan on my lap, I did some weeding.  I noticed that the daikon white root is getting bigger and I daydream about what Japanese dish I am going to use with the daikon when they are ready to be harvest.

DSC09387

As I was about to stand up and moved to weed another area, I noticed this green small bud on the radish top leaves. Oh no it comes to haunt me again…it seems that the daikon has decided to bolt~produce flower. I don’t have much beginners luck with brassica this year. My first experience with wong bok and daikon has all look so promising at first, the plants germination and growth were all perfect but it decided to give me flower instead the part that I wanted. Even our cabbage which we never had problem has decided to bolt as well this month.It can be I sowed the radish too early (August). I will have a go with daikon again this month as it is much warmer now.  I am trying to think what kind of weather is suitable for growing them, try to go deep in my memories when I was living in Japan when did I see the radish in vegetable plots there. If I am not mistaken, it is usually after the watermelon harvest is finished that will mean in the fall season. Takaeko from Osaka has started his wong bok and daikon in Autumn. Can I blame the weather this year? I grow Wong Bok end of summer and autumn this year but all bolted.

DSC09385Pull those bolted daikon out from the soil to see how much the root have grown under the soil. The white roots were already more than 25cm.  I finally pull out some pink radish from the soil (first attempt of this variety), to see how this variety looks like (red ones two of them from left). In the picture, the most right red radish is “sparkler”.DSC09408

Enyoy the weekend!

4 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

Bolting can occur after if a plant is planted early and then has been exposed to cold conditions. It can also be triggered by lengthening daylight. Not sure whether this is likely to be the cause in your caes but try sowing some more radish.

rainfield61 said...

You have removed the white "dancing kings" from the soil.

I think so.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Green Lane Allotments~ I feel the weather here this year compare with last year is a bit different. This year there are many days the temperature fluctuated many time that might cause the plant confusion and trigger bolting. For example last week was like winter again when the previous week was warm. Our celery has been producing flower when last year we can prolong harvest till November. Can be the last week temperature drop causes our daikons to bolt. Will try again sowing some more.

Rainfield61~ Why does it call white 'dancing kings' too?

Wendy said...

picky picky picky plants!