radishes and other questions
 

I've left a few of my radishes to go to seed. They produce great flowers
and now have some seed pods. Do I wait until the plant dies and then
harvest the pods for planting next year?

Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my
lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might
account for this? Will my strawberries ever taste sweet again or do I
have to start over next year?

dazed and confused in calgary....

On 8/3/05 11:38 PM, in article ,
"embertr" wrote:

I've left a few of my radishes to go to seed. They produce great flowers
and now have some seed pods.
Thanks to the bees....you use no pesticides I presume? That is why there are
bees there. Nice! We do need the bees and sometimes we forget that we do.
Do I wait until the plant dies and then
harvest the pods for planting next year?
Last year I waited as long as I could (I waited as long as I could before
the wet weather kicked in) and then brought the plant into the garage...more
like a wind tunnel as it is open at both ends. I hung the whole plant up
from the roof of the garage. It dried very well.
Yesterday, I decided to plant some radishes (I live in BC close to
Vancouver). I have saved seed before but this time I thought I would try
something different....I put them in a large plastic bag and crushed the
pods with my feet. (running shoes) I expected the seeds to fall to the
bottom of the bag...NOPE! The seeds stayed in the mess of stomped radish
branches.
I planted them today...branches and all. My thinking is there has to be
at least a few seeds in this mess! :)
Oh well, the great adventure continues. Good luck with yours! :)
Bill
PS: Have a nice Sunday.

Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my
lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might
account for this? Will my strawberries ever taste sweet again or do I
have to start over next year?

dazed and confused in calgary....

Check out the soil pH. We moved some blackberries from Arkansas (acidic) to
Kansas (neutral) and they weren't sweet and lost their flavor. We may try
lowering the pH next year, but it was very disappointing.

Dwayne

"embertr" wrote in message
...
I've left a few of my radishes to go to seed. They produce great flowers
and now have some seed pods. Do I wait until the plant dies and then
harvest the pods for planting next year?

Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my
lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might
account for this? Will my strawberries ever taste sweet again or do I
have to start over next year?

dazed and confused in calgary....

Thanks Dwayne, I'll check it out. It's odd but today I had one berry that
was as sweet as jam. That's not consistent though. Oh well, better luck
next year.

On Thu, 04 Aug 2005 04:50:05 -0500, Dwayne wrote:

Check out the soil pH. We moved some blackberries from Arkansas (acidic) to
Kansas (neutral) and they weren't sweet and lost their flavor. We may try
lowering the pH next year, but it was very disappointing.

Dwayne

"embertr" wrote in message
...
I've left a few of my radishes to go to seed. They produce great flowers
and now have some seed pods. Do I wait until the plant dies and then
harvest the pods for planting next year?

Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my
lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might
account for this? Will my strawberries ever taste sweet again or do I
have to start over next year?

dazed and confused in calgary....

On Thu, 04 Aug 2005 08:43:47 +0000, Bill wrote:

On 8/3/05 11:38 PM, in article ,
"embertr" wrote:

I've left a few of my radishes to go to seed. They produce great flowers
and now have some seed pods.
Thanks to the bees....you use no pesticides I presume? That is why there are
bees there. Nice! We do need the bees and sometimes we forget that we do.
Do I wait until the plant dies and then
harvest the pods for planting next year?
Last year I waited as long as I could (I waited as long as I could before
the wet weather kicked in) and then brought the plant into the garage...more
like a wind tunnel as it is open at both ends. I hung the whole plant up
from the roof of the garage. It dried very well.
Yesterday, I decided to plant some radishes (I live in BC close to
Vancouver). I have saved seed before but this time I thought I would try
something different....I put them in a large plastic bag and crushed the
pods with my feet. (running shoes) I expected the seeds to fall to the
bottom of the bag...NOPE! The seeds stayed in the mess of stomped radish
branches.
I planted them today...branches and all. My thinking is there has to be
at least a few seeds in this mess! :)
Oh well, the great adventure continues. Good luck with yours! :)
Bill
PS: Have a nice Sunday.

Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my
lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might
account for this? Will my strawberries ever taste sweet again or do I
have to start over next year?

dazed and confused in calgary....


Thanks Bill,

Nope, no pesticides. No chemicals of any kind in our garden. We let the
wasps take care of the aphids and nature take care of the rest. But after
the disappointing crops this year maybe next year we go to the chemistry
shop for some steroids!!!

We'll see about the radishes. I don't know about the "radish-stomp" but
the hanging till dry sounds like a good idea.

Thanks, good luck with your garden.

On 8/3/05 11:38 PM, in article ,
"embertr" wrote:

Along with this my
lettuce is bitter. Is there some difficiency in my soil that might
account for this?
I have had bitter lettuce also... I figure it to be a lack of water and/or
high temperatures that make lettuce want to bolt=go to seed. My thinking is
any plant that grows fast will be sweet....you may want to give the lettuce
more water and when it gets hot....just cool it down by spraying a
'mist'...I have just quickly used a watering can to spray enough water to
just dampen the lettuce leaves... Just the leaves...then water heavily after
a little while. It does seem to work.
Bill
PS: Have a nice Sunday.

embertr writes:
Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my

Have you had a lot of rain? The berries when picked after a few days of
rain are always tasteless IME.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Well we had alot of rain here but it was early in the season before we
even had flowers. Last year we had lots of rain but the berries were
great. Maybe my soil is just completely depleted of whatever they need to
give them flavor?

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:44:08 +0000, John Savage wrote:

embertr writes:
Also, I moved my strawberries patch this year and the few berries that are
growing are either tasteless or EXTREMELY tart. Along with this my

Have you had a lot of rain? The berries when picked after a few days of
rain are always tasteless IME.