Grow Veg

The fall growing season has many attractions, including fewer weeds, milder temperatures, and the opportunity to try special radishes that are happiest growing at the season’s tail end. Asian radishes including daikons, Chinese radishes, and watermelon radishes are great fun to grow as summer turns to fall, but you’ll need to get busy. The popularity of purple daikons is growing fast, so don’t be surprised to see ‘Sweet Baby’ and other purple daikon radishes at local farmers markets later this fall. Watermelon radishes have stiff, serrated leaves that resemble those of turnip, and the only tricks to growing them are to plant them early enough so they mature before cold weather, and thin them early on to at least 4 inches (10cm) apart – two needs common to all Asian fall radishes.

It’s that time of year again, when wafts – nay, clouds – of whitefly lay siege to summer favorites like tomatoes and cabbage. With an initial assault complete, it’s now time to apply an organic insecticidal soap, again taking great care to cover all areas of the leaf including, crucially, those undersides. Encarsia formosa may sound like the Latin name of a beautiful vine, but it’s actually a special type of parasitic wasp that lays its eggs inside whitefly larvae. and it’s only when the parasite is almost ready to hatch out as an adult that it then sets to work on its host’s vital organs.

The root word, rotabagge, is Swedish for thick root, which hints at the density of rutabaga roots when compared to turnips. napobrassica) include swedes, winter turnips, yellow turnips, Swedish turnips, Russian turnips, Canadian turnips, and neeps. The largest rutabaga I’ve ever grown got mixed up with the Brussels sprouts and enjoyed plenty of elbow room. The leaves are big and wavy, like turnips, but have a smooth surface with bluish bloom like cabbage.