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Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
  • Farmer John's Daikon Radish
Farmer John's Daikon Radish

Raphanus sativus
$4.50
Description

We obtained this from one of the best known farmers around, "Farmer John" in Starke, just down the road from us in Gainesville. Daikons often grows partially above ground, and can get massive. Excellent for pickling and fermenting!

Farmer John has been growing and saving this daikon for a long time, but with his age and time limitations has not been able to continue full stewardship of the seed. We rescued a shed full of old pods and stalks many moons ago, shelled them all, and planted out hundreds to make sure we saved them.

He's been trying to select for purple roots, but it's hard with an out-crossing crop (bees visiting the flowers and mixing them all up!) to get purely purple, so instead this is a lovely mix of mostly whites but still lots of purples and some pinker ones too. Some have really striking purple-colored leaves. This is still a work in progress, but we're happy to carry it and share this local treasure with y'all.

Check out our little video farm tour of Angie's homestead back in 2020, and see the fields of Farmer John's Daikon (daikon starts at 11:03) and many more plants being grown for seed!
Product details
  • About 100 seeds
  • 50 days to harvest
  • Locally grown by Angie Minno in Alachua and in Working Food gardens at GROW HUB in Gainesville, Florida
How to grow

A rule of thumb is to always direct sow root crops and legumes. Direct seed 1/4"-1/2" deep, 4-6" apart. Give daikons more room, about 12" or more. Regular watering helps with better growth and keeps them less pungent. Harvest as soon as they are ready, rather than leaving in the ground too long, to avoid them becoming pithy.
How to save seeds

Not all radishes will readily seed here, but we've found that Black Spanish and Daikon do! When fall planted, good specimens will produce spring seed.

Radishes require a fairly high number of flowering plants at once for good seed set; 20-80+ recommended. They get enormous and may need staking. If you can't take them all the way to seed, consider letting the flowers bloom awhile, as they are much loved by pollinators.

After flowering and pollination, green pods will appear that are really tasty! Save some and let them dry up and turn brown. The longer they mature on the plant, the better.

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