Daikon Landrace Cross Results

I’ve written about our daikon radish landrace experiment here and here.

We’re harvesting the F1 generation now, and I will be leaving some exceptional specimens to serve as the basis for the next generation.

The color mix between the pure red of the Red King radishes with the pure white of the Japanese daikons has been interesting.

Instead of getting a uniformly pink radish, we’ve gotten many with coloration like purple-top turnips.

Here’s one growing next to a fully red daikon:

And here’s a white in the same bed:

And a red one:

The majority have been pink and white, however – and usually cylindrical and rounded off, not carrot-like, as some of the original daikons were.

The roots stay good up to a large size, and we’ve also been eating some of the greens and feeding others to the chickens. The greens are really lush and crisp right now. Here’s a shot of the bed from this morning:

The daikons are all to the right. To the left is a mix of other brassicas.

The flavor is good, and not too sharp. The original Red King II may be better, but hey… we grew these without buying seed. And we do use a lot of them.

Thus far, we’ve harvested 77lbs of daikons in 2023 and there are probably another 30-40lbs left to go.

Time to make more kimchi.

Finally, happy Feast of Saint Nicolas!