What’s left of our white radish plant – and it obviously knows it has limited time left…

The white radish is supposed to be a root vegetable. I was told that the leaves are edible as well, but if you harvest too many leaves, how will the plant photosynthesize? Either way, I’ve concluded that this is one of those plants that I don’t have the knack for growing.

I grew four plants from seed several months ago, and thought they would grow well in recycled PET bottles with the narrow tops removed. After all, the white radish is a root vegetable that is narrow and long – as is the recycled bottle. So, for several months, I cared for the plants and watched them grow with what looked like good, healthy leaves. And when I saw what looked like rounded tops just below the soil, I was certain that radishes were growing in there. Finally, when I couldn’t stand it any more, I went digging – and found a radish about the size of a golf ball! Except it wasn’t as round. So, the other plants remained in their pots for several more weeks until we tried pulling out one more, then another, each time finding tiny, joke-worthy roots that you will never see on this blog.

Finally, there was one last plant, and it did something new. It started budding and eventually bloomed with tiny four-petaled off-white flowers. I don’t know if we’ll get seeds from them, but that, essentially, is our sad tale of trying to grow white radishes.

A closer view of the white radish flowers. They’re tiny and sweet looking, aren’t they?

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