Update on my Bolting (Flowering) Radish Plant

Update on my Bolting (Flowering) Radish Plant - Alien Pod

I posted earlier about my German Giant radish plant that is currently bolting. The time of season and the temperature outside has likely contributed to the plant bolting instead of developing a large root bulb. You can read more about the plant here in this post. I posted about that almost two weeks ago. So this is a look at the flower stalk two weeks later. I had considered pulling the plant out but I figured let's see if any pollination occurs and it produces some seeds. For awhile it didn't appear that any seed pods were forming. The plant just continually produces flowers which in turn when they die fall all over the place and make a mess! The flower stalk has also gotten longer and more leggy as well as heavy which has caused it to start leaning over. I really wanted to pull it out again but I noticed something quite interesting today. It appears to be a seed pod but looks kind of alien-ish. Of course it could just be my lack of knowledge about radish seed pods too but take a look.

Radish Seed Pod

I expected a smaller seed pod. This one looks very swollen in a way where it's almost about to burst. Hence the alien pod comment... But it's exciting though to actually get some seeds. It currently is the only seed pod on the plant. The plant is huge now and bursting with endless flowers.

The radish flower stalk

Above is a picture of it. It's a bit hard to see with the trees in the background. I should also note that I'm holding it up with one hand because otherwise it would be leaning far over to the right instead. But as you can see there are just stems of flowers growing everywhere from the stalk. And sadly the one lone seed pod. I did quick research on radish seed pods and discovered that some people actually eat them. It seems they may go good in salads and are known to have a spicy taste similar to radishes. Interesting. I won't be eating this one though. I'll let the seeds mature, hopefully, unless it ends up falling off prematurely.

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Windowsill Radishes - Day 31 - Death of the Cotyledons

The radishes have been growing for 31 days at this point from the day I plopped the seeds into the dirt. As of day 31, I've noticed that the cotyledons, or embryonic leaves, for both plants have finally started to yellow and die. I was curious how long these would last. They've grown very large throughout the life of the plants thus far too. The radish bulbs do seem to be plumping up nicely too. I'm excited to see what they look like on the day I decide to pluck them from the dirt. I'm really curious to see if there's much more to them than meets the eyes (above the dirt in this case). Day 31 Side View Day 31 Top View Radish Close-up Good-bye Cotyledons

Radish Season is Over - I think...

Much like shell art is over in Portlandia, I think it's safe to say that radish season is over in my neck of the woods. The weather has just warmed up too significantly as of late. If you saw my post from yesterday, I ended up harvesting some of those radishes as they didn't appear to be growing any more. I will post something about that in a few days or so. Upon sampling, they were much too spicy to my taste. I think the window of growth opportunity is over. I probably should have started in early spring or late winter but this was more of a fun experiment stemming from the shelter in place orders. Anyhow, I'll probably be plucking most of my radish plants in the coming days except for a few that are or might be bolting. They'll serve to make a nice dish of radish greens. Some strange looking radishes

Windowsill Radishes - Day 35 - The Radish (singular) Harvest

So day 35 rolled around and I was still committed to harvesting a radish - curious to see how it's grown. I decided to pull the radish that was already more exposed above the soil first. I had no idea how much of the radish was actually below the soil. Have a scroll through the images below to see the harvest. I suppose I should really be putting harvest in quotations. "Harvest." But after plucking the radish from the dirt, my first observation was, "wow, this radish is pretty small." But upon closer inspection and after cleaning off the dirt and stray roots, I got a sense that the radish was plumping up below the dirt. I think I probably should have let it grow longer but hey, my curiosity got the better of me and plus the seed packet said matures in 29 days. I'll be writing up another post to talk about the taste of the radish and the radish greens. But after plucking the radish, I have committed to leaving the other radish growing for at least another fiv...

The Capsule Garden

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