Thread: top growth
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Old 15-09-2009, 03:00 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
K K is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,966
Default top growth

Lofty writes
Hi All,
I'm new here and to gardening, but this year I have tried growing a few vegs
on a small piece of land, which gets nice sunshine, and whilst my onions and
potatoes havn't done to bad, things like radish, beetroot etc have made lots
of top growth but there is nothing underneath them.


Don't give up on the radish and beetroot until they either die down or
produce a flower shoot. The way the radish grows, for example, is to
produce lots of leaves the first year to manufacture food for the plant.
Over winter the leaves die down, so all that food is stored in a swollen
stem base (the radish), so that next year the plant can push up a flower
stem and produce seeds, which is what it was aiming at all along.

Radish need a continuous water supply, so they're easier to grow in the
early part of the season, before the summer gets too dry. The slower
they grow, the hotter and more woody they become. Home grown radishes
are hotter than supermarket ones, but also far tastier.

Beetroot aren't such a problem if they take a long time. But if all else
fails, you can eat the leaves like spinach, or add the very young leaves
in the centre to salads.

--
Kay