Container Gardening Ideas For Vegetables

This is a series of the same title, with each part featuring a vegetable.

Part 3:  RADISH 

Eating fresh and organic radish is wonderful!  You could really taste the slightly bitter and unique flavor of the radish, plus you know you’re eating something great for the body.

Why eat radish?

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Institutes of Health (USA) documented that radish can protect the liver, and even heal it from damage.  Wow!

At the same, the Gerson Institute cancer therapy lists radish as one of the recommended foods to heal and protect the self from cancer.

That’s why when I saw the organic radish produce of Bahay Pag-Asa, I readily bought some. Bahay Pag-Asa (House of Hope) is a corrective and transformational facility exclusively for convicted youth offenders of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental of the Philippines.  I don’t only help myself, but I also get to help a bunch of kids!

How to plant radish?

The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) recommends this planting guide for radish (see Table 1):

• • Planting Dates in Florida (outdoors) (USDA plant hardiness zones 8a to 11a) – September to March or October to February

• • Yield per 10 ft (pounds) – 4

• • Plants per 10 ft ² – 120 

• • Days to Harvest – 20-30

• • Spacing (inches)
    • Plants -1
    • Rows -6

• • Seed depth (inches) – 1/4

• • Transplant Ability – only plant seeds or containerized transplants with developed root systems.

• • Plant Family – (Cabbage) Brassicaceae.  Rotate plant families = avoid successively planting vegetables from the same family in the same area of the garden.

• Notes:  Easy and fast-growing; thin early and inter-crop with slow-growing vegetables to save space. Plant every two weeks during the growing season for a continuous supply. Spicy, bitter flavor caused by hot weather and over-maturity. Winter/Oriental radishes (such as Daikon) also grow well in Florida.

Please visit their site if you’d like more info on:

1. 1. Steps in Gardening
      • Site
      • Plan
      • Soil Preparation (Organic matter, Compost, and Green Manure)
      • Adjusting soil pH

1. 1. Fertilizing

1. 1. Irrigation and drainage

1. 1. Extending the Gardening Season

1. Pest Management

In case you need radish seeds, please check out the certified organic radish from Amazon, with 4.5 stars score and 54 customer reviews.  Please note Affiliate program disclosure.
What are examples of containers for radish?

1. These pictures and text are by Christian Alvarez Luzong (Home Farmers’ Club).  Radish planted in soda bottles.

• Author used soda 1 liter bottles.
• He used “Urban Biowaste Fertilizer & Natural farming protocols”.  Per his Facebook account:
  • Urine and Rice wash solution fertilizer:
    Collect 1 part urine, 2 parts rice wash
    Ferment for seven days.  After that, mix them up return them back to the containers.  Ferment again for another 7 days.  In fermenting this fertilizer, expose it to sunlight and tighten up the caps of urine container.  Make sure no air will pass inside the containers in order to kill the bad bacteria inside it.  Water this to your plant twice a week, direct to the soil 250 ML per plant.  This is continuous application of fertilizer in the whole life span of your plant.
  • Fish Amino Acid (FAA) Fertilizer (enough to fill 1/2 sardines can)
  • 6 liters fresh water + 6 liters fermented rice wash and urine = My liquid bio waste fertilizer combo.
  • Water 250 ml per plant twice a week.
  • Soil mixture
    • My soil mixture 2 parts top soil, 1 part carbonize rice hull, 1/4 rice straw compost, 1/4 pig manure, 1/8 vermi cast.  For best result spray IMO for 7days before using this mixture.

2.  This picture is by Jay Philip H. Ramos.  Radish planted in socks.

3.  This picture is by Eshton Krull Balolong.  Radish planted in socks, and hang on makeshift stand.

4.  This picture is by Myrna Lopoz.  Radish planted in pails. 

How did I prepare my radish?

Actually, it was Linda, our helper, who prepared it.  (I just took a picture – LOL!)  She definitely cooks better than I do!

I suspect that she’s a cooking genius.  She’s self-taught.  She never measures, so she relies on her palate alone.  I just show her a picture of whatever food I’d like her to make (Filipino or foreign), and she figures out how to make it.  Of course, I source the ingredients and recipe.  All her food tastes good.  I feel so lucky!

For her pickled radish, I could give you estimates only.  She used:

• 1 kilogram radish
• 750 ml coconut sap vinegar
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 heads onions
• 1/4 kilogram sugar
• 1/2 chili habanero
• Salt to taste

Steps:

1. 1. Peel and cut radish into 2 inch strips.  Wash and place in glass container (7 inches tall and 5 inches in diameter).

1. 1. Peel and cut onions.

1. 1. Peel and crush garlic.

1. 1. Combine radish, onion, and garlic.

1. 1. In another container, mix coconut vinegar and sugar.  Add salt to taste.

1. 1. Pour mixture into radish, garlic, and onion.

1. Refrigerate.

We have 1 habanero chili pepper shrub in our organic garden, and it fruits endlessly.  Since it is one of the hottest chilis, we use it sparingly, and we freeze the rest of it for our future use.

This is the traditional Filipino coconut sap (tuba) vinegar, which is my favorite.  It really tastes great and very healthy, too!

I’ll be selling this soon, so message me in case you’d like some.

If you’re into fermenting, do check out this fermenter lid kit at Amazon, with 5-stars score and 580 customer reviews.  Please note Affiliate program disclosure.
In closing, I highly recommend that we plant radish organically, and we can do so by planting in containers.  They’re definitely healthy and tasty!

I’m just happy that I visited Bahay Pag-Asa (House of Hope), and I had the opportunity to buy organic radish.  It was a really lovely morning to spend with Pamela and Mylene at the Bahay Pag-Asa (House of Hope) organic farm, and to eat organic vegetables straight from the plant.  Of course, it was all-organic talk and walk, which delighted me no end.

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