GROWING DAIKONA - LANDING AND CARE

Delicious daikon root vegetables, or Japanese radish, are eaten fresh, peeled, like a carrot. They are tender, juicy, crunchy, like a radish, and without the bitter-sharp taste inherent in other types of radish. And in general, there are a lot of amazing things in this vegetable!

WHAT IS THE DIKON?

Daikon is an early, but at the same time productive root crop from the cabbage family. Its closest relatives are European and Chinese radish (lo-ba), as well as radish. All of them belong to the same botanical species Raphanus sativus L., and confusion often arises as to which radish to call.

The advantages of the “Japanese” daikon are high yields, special benefits (removal of radionuclides and other harmful substances from the body) and slight spiciness, Chinese loba - a slightly spicy taste combined with good keeping quality of root crops, European (Russian) radish - traditional vigor, maximum medicinal properties and the ability to be stored until a new harvest. Daikon root vegetables have little dry matter (3 times less than in black radish), so their flesh is so tender and juicy, but they are not stored for long - in the refrigerator for no more than 3 months.

TO RUSSIA FROM JAPAN

The largest variety of daikon varieties in its homeland is in Japan, where it has been grown for over 1000 years.

Firstly, plants are divided according to seasons into autumn radish (the largest group), summer (heat-resistant), winter (for areas with mild winters) and spring - resistant to flowering.

Secondly, varieties are combined into groups according to the shape of the root crop, its immersion in the soil (7 variety types), color and other economically important features.

In some varieties, the weight of the root crop reaches 15-20 kg, but these can only be obtained in a favorable climate and on soils with a deep arable horizon, loose, fertile, well-fertilized and sufficiently moist. Cleaning up a large-sized daikon is still that weightlifting!

The most widespread in Russia is the mid-late daikon (60-100 days from germination to harvest) of the autumn ripening period. The mass of the root crop varies from 0 kg to 15 kg, but the main assortment is represented by white long root crops weighing 2-0 kg.

Daikon is an annual plant, it throws out a peduncle when it is old enough and with a very long day - in June. Therefore, in central Russia, in order to obtain a marketable root crop, it is necessary to sow daikon from April, when the soil warms up to 10 °, until mid-May. Again - from early July to mid-August.

Early ripe varieties that ripen in 30-40 days are sown in the middle lane both in early spring and summer - with harvesting at the end of summer and autumn. They are stored for no more than a month, so they are grown in small quantities.

Later varieties (60-100 days) intended for storage are sown from July 10 to August 10, and at the end of September - October, as a rule, several dry and warm days are given for harvesting.

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Reference by topic: When to plant daikon in open ground and how to care for it

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DAICON VARIETIES: FROM ELEPHANT TO FLAMINGO

Rosreestr includes 39 varieties and hybrids of F, daikon, mostly in autumn, but there are also for sowing in spring.

Of the early ripe ones, we can recommend the time-tested Sasha variety with a white, rounded, half-buried root crop. Harvest can be harvested already with a weight of root crops of 40-50 g or wait for their full formation until 200-300 g. The pulp is juicy, with a sweet-spicy taste, the skin is thin and tender.

Minowashi. An early ripening variety with large cylindrical roots weighing up to 1 kg, immersed in the soil by 5%. The skin is white with a green spot around the leaf rosette. Taste with a slight bitterness, especially at the bottom of the root crop. Leaves are good for salads. There are two crops per season.

Of the mid-season varieties, the most common are Dragon and Dubinushka. With good care, you can get root crops weighing up to 1 kg.

The Dragon has white cylindrical roots 30-60 cm long and 6-8 cm in diameter, they are immersed in the soil by 50-70%. The pulp is milky white, dense.

Dubinushka has shorter root crops - up to 45 cm, with a greenish top, deepened by 50-75%. The pulp is white, juicy. The taste is sweetish, refreshing, without sharpness. The variety is soft, resistant to bacteriosis.

Elephant tusk. An old mid-season variety, ripens in 80 days from germination. The root crop is cylindrical, weighing up to 600 g, about 30 cm long and 6-8 cm in diameter, protrudes from the ground by 2/3. Harvest is easy. The variety is drought-resistant and always pleases with stable yields.

Variety Imperator ripens in 60-75 days, lilac roots look like icicles. They weigh up to 600 g, 2/3 are immersed in the soil. The pulp is dense, white, juicy.

The roots of the Ft Flamingo hybrid look spectacular. Their upper part, which is above the soil surface, has a light purple color, and that below ground level is pure white. Since about a quarter of the root crop sticks out from the outside, you can clean it without digging. The taste is excellent.

Daikon is the main vegetable of Japan, it is also widely grown in China, Korea and Taiwan due to its dietary and healing properties. Eating daikon helps cleanse the body of toxins, dissolve stones in the kidneys and gallbladder, and prevent many diseases. The Japanese use it not only fresh, but also for soups, especially miso soups.

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See also: Daikon (photo) cultivation and benefit: herbalist advises

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DAICON - EASY GROWING

Daikon is unpretentious and undemanding, so a decent harvest can be obtained without much effort.

SOIL FOR DAIKONA.

Root crops penetrate deep into the soil by 30 cm or more, so the area allotted to the daikon should be with a thick layer of fertile soil. It will require deep plowing, followed by cultivation or digging into two bayonets of a shovel. On heavy soils, one must be prepared for a significantly lower yield than indicated in the characteristics of the variety. The situation can be improved by growing daikon on ridges and ridges.

The peculiar sharp taste of radish is determined by special substances - glucosinolates, which are almost 3 times more in European radish than in daikon and loba, about 8 and 20 mg / 100 g, respectively. The circle of consumers of oriental radish is much wider.

Mineral complexes are used as the main fertilizer - for example, azofoska 16:16:16. The use of fresh organic fertilizers for root crops should be avoided.

If you plan to grow daikon during summer sowing, it is permissible in early spring to take a site for successful predecessors - early ripening greens: dill, parsley, cilantro, lettuce, etc.

Sowing. The sowing scheme is ordinary - 20 × 40 cm. When thickened, the roots turn out to be small. Seeds are buried in the soil by 1 - 3 cm. Greater deepening leads to thinning of seedlings, developmental delay, obtaining a long thin root crop.

Seedlings appear in 7-8 days, provided that the top layer of soil is sufficiently moistened and the air temperature during the day is from 20 °.

MAINTENANCE OF THE DICONE

The main problem at the beginning of plant development is protection from the cruciferous flea, which is common throughout the country. These small insects can easily leave you without a crop of any cabbage vegetables. They eat young plants almost entirely.

Prepare for an attack in advance. The choice of folk remedies (tobacco dust, crushed chamomile, etc.), bioinsecticides and chemicals is great. In small areas, it is important to temporarily cover seedlings with a light non-woven material. The grown leaves are rougher, and fleas are reluctant to feed on them.

Root crops can be attacked by soil pests - wireworm, scoop larvae, slugs. If they meet on the site, protective measures must be provided.

The top layer of the soil must be kept loose and moderately moist, weeded, mulched. About 3 weeks after germination, the leaves will grow and the daikon rows will close, which will prevent the development of weeds.

Daikon top dressing - 1 - 2 per growing season (20-30 g / sq. M of azophoska).

DAICON CLEANING

They dig up the daikon not in bulk, but individually, as needed. The top of the root crop is usually above the ground. Depending on the variety, the size of this protruding part varies greatly - from the top of the head to 75% of the entire length of the root crop. The smaller the depth, the easier it is to clean.

Root crops that go into the soil by 20 cm or more are not easy to pull out, moreover, they are quite fragile and must be carefully dragged by the tops so as not to break. It is best to do a side excavation.

Daikon is suitable for fresh consumption in all stages of development. But if the goal is to store longer, then the signs of ripening are: a slowdown in the growth of the root crop in thickness, the presence of a characteristic color (for varieties with a green and purple root crop), the death of 3-5 lower leaves.

Full harvesting is carried out in accordance with the precocity of the variety (see description) or on the eve of the onset of adverse weather - frosts below 3 ° are dangerous. A short-term decrease in air temperature to near-zero values ​​rarely harms the daikon, but after harvesting, such root crops are often unsuitable for storage.

The tops are cut off with a sharp knife as low as possible to the head of the root crop, but without damaging it. It is permissible to leave petioles about 0 cm.

Daikon is still a rarity in our country, so root crops weighing up to 1 kg grown on the site will surely attract the attention of neighbors and diversify the diet.

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GROWING DAIKONA - PLANTING AND CARE, ADVICE AND FEEDBACK OF GARDENERS

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DAICON VARIETY SASHA - THE BEST!

Daikon Sasha is considered one of the most popular varieties. Its seeds are easy to obtain in garden shops and markets. I grew it and I discovered a lot of advantages. How did he deserve such wide recognition among summer residents?

In this early ripening variety, the root crop reaches a weight of 200 to 400 g, has a round or oblong shape and has an excellent taste, its flesh is elastic, juicy and tender.

Thanks to the blunt tip, Sasha is easy to remove from the soil, and, unlike varieties with long roots, this work is easy to do even without the help of a fork.

1. The variety is resistant to florescence and mucous bacteriosis.
2. Not afraid of the cold.
3. Seeds remain viable for up to 8 years.
4. Suitable for growing in any regions: southern, northern and middle lane.

The only disadvantage of the variety was a weak keeping quality. A month after harvesting, the root crops lost their juiciness and began to dry. But despite this, I really liked the variety.

I sowed daikon seeds in open ground in several stages until August 10. However, I read that if the difference between night and day temperatures increases greatly by August, it is better to sow the seeds early, around mid-July. Otherwise, root crops may grow tasteless and rough.

I chose a row for a vegetable sunny, with fertile soil (after growing legumes). For digging on 1 sq.m of the plot, I applied a bucket of compost and 20-30 g of complex mineral fertilizer. I dug up the ground to a depth of 30-40 cm. I leveled the bed well with a rake.

Pre-sorted the seeds, selected only the largest.

When 2-3 true leaves were formed on the plants, they thinned out, leaving a distance of 8 to 10 cm between the seedlings.

A few days later, she fed with a solution of nitroammophoska (50 g per 10 liters of water).

Once every 5-7 days, I watered abundantly, after which I loosened the soil shallowly.

© Author: Olga ZAYTSEVA, Tolyatti, Samara region. Author's photo

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DAICON POPULARLY CALLED RADISH

I got acquainted with this wonderful vegetable quite a long time ago, when I first spotted it in a shopping center. Yes, and the name was exotic - daikon

It turned out that this vegetable comes from Japan or China, it is also called Japanese or Chinese radish. But the radish roots that I grew in my garden were always either green (for summer) or black (for winter). And here is an absolutely white root crop, and even in shape it looks like a long icicle. Well, what kind of radish is this?!

The taste of the daikon turned out to be excellent, and I decided to grow it in my garden all the time. I don’t remember the name of the variety, the seeds of which I sowed for the first time in the spring, but most plants formed flower stalks by June. I had to send them to the compost heap. So the first pancake turned out lumpy.

But I did not give up and continued to look for an approach to this interesting plant. My efforts were not in vain, and today I have selected varieties that I grow both in spring and from the end of summer, collecting two crops of this vegetable.

In early spring, I sow the Sasha variety under the film, which matures in 45-50 days. Its root crops are round, small, about 10 cm in diameter. This is very important, because during the winter the soil is very compacted, damp, and in order to loosen it deeply, you need to put a lot of effort. Therefore, I plant this variety, the roots of which are not deep from the surface.

At the end of July, when the land is freed up after harvesting early potatoes, winter crops of carrots and greens, I sow long-fruited daikon varieties of medium ripening: Mino-washi. Cudgel, Dragon. At this time it is already possible

it is easy to loosen the soil to a great depth, which is very important for these varieties. In compacted soil, root crops grow ugly, crooked, with several root processes.

Of the fertilizers, I only apply complex fertilizers when preparing the soil (60-100 g / sq.m). I don’t use organics, because when manure is applied, root crops also grow horned.

I rarely sow. I leave one plant in each hole. The distance between them in a row is 25-30 cm, between rows - 60 cm. Be sure to water abundantly to prevent the soil from drying out. From cruciferous fleas and leaf-eating caterpillars, I pollinate with a mixture of tobacco dust and ash.

I clean up in the first days of October, carefully digging up the root crops with a garden pitchfork so as not to break off or damage them.

© Author: Tatyana STEPANOVA, St. Petersburg

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Reference by topic: Daikon (photo) - cultivation and recipes, care and properties from A to Z

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GROWING DAICON - LANDING AND CARE ON VIDEO

© Author: A. MIRONOV, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Associate Professor of the RG AU-MSHA named after K. A. Timiryazev

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