Radishes - a minor success

I'm usually able to grow radishes fairly successfully in my raised beds, but I often struggle to get them to grow in pots. They usually bolt before bulbing-up. A few weeks ago I had sudden urge to sow some radish seeds, but there was no room in the beds, so I rather reluctantly sowed some in some pots of compost. I sowed one on 27th July and another on 2nd August, hoping to get a staggered harvest. Each pot only held about 20 seeds.

Whether it was due to the weather (August was awful), or whether I used two different types of compost, I don't know, but they fared very differently. The first lot was initially nibbled by a caterpillar when they were still small, which nearly wiped them out, but fortunately they recovered though they then developed very slowly, producing some very dense, strong-flavoured radishes that were only just edible. The other lot, sowed a week later were completely different and very much better. Here is photo of the two pots side by side:

Since Jane is going away this week to spend a few days with our daughter in France, I wanted to harvest the radishes before she disappeared, even though they are mostly still on the small side. Here you see the evidence that I did indeed grow them in a pot:

There were only about a dozen that were worth picking, but in my eyes that is nonetheless a significant victory!

See, there are a couple of very nice ones in that bunch. They are "Cherry Belle", by the way.

I don't think this is going to persuade me to regularly grow radishes in pots, but at least it proves that it can be done.