What it is
Daikon (Tillage Radish) (Raphanus sativus longipinnatus) is in the Brassicaceae (Mustard) family. A 'biological plow' — the long root drills through hardpan, then rots over winter leaving channels for air and water.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it moderate, and give it compacted ok soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 4–6 in apart. Expect roughly 50–70. Cool-season annual.
How it's used
Daikon (Tillage Radish) is used: root edible; or leave to decompose.
🔎 How to identify it
- Large rough lobed leaves
- Long white tapering root
- Drills deep into compacted soil
Edibility
How to grow & propagate daikon (tillage radish)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate daikon (tillage radish)
The cabbage family is a cool-season seed crop. Start the heading types (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) in trays 5–6 weeks before you want them in the ground; sow the fast roots and greens (radish, turnip, mustard, arugula) straight into the bed. They all cross with each other readily, so if you're saving seed, only let one variety of a given species flower at a time.
Growing daikon (tillage radish) in Texas
Give it full sun and compacted ok soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This is a cool-season crop. On the Texas Gulf Coast that means your real windows are fall and late winter, not summer — sow as the heat breaks in September–October and again in late winter, and you'll harvest through our mild winters while the rest of the country is frozen out.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 50–70 before you're harvesting. The part you're after: root and greens.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.