Daikon is an exotic plant, not very popular in Russian gardens. And completely in vain. This vegetable is low in calories, versatile in cooking (it can be boiled, fried, stewed or consumed fresh), easy to grow, improves the functioning of the stomach and intestines, has antiseptic properties, and helps cleanse the liver and kidneys. You can make excellent salads from daikon, which will especially please those who follow a diet.
If you know how and when to clean daikon, then you can easily provide yourself with this useful vegetable for the whole winter. In addition, it has a high yield.
Daikon: description
Translated from Japanese, this root crop is literally called "big root". It has a long cylindrical shape and looks more like a carrot than a radish, of which it is a relative. It can be truly gigantic in size, root crops weighing 4-5 kg can easily be grown in our soils. The taste is quite delicate, without pungency and bitterness, not like a radish. The daikon, the photo of which is presented below, has a rounded shape, but it does not differ in taste from a cylindrical one and can also be huge in size, the only minus is that it is not very convenient to store.
How to choose a daikon variety?
Now stores provide a very wide selection of seeds, it is best to give preference to those varieties that are bred by domestic breeders. They have better survival and fitness specifically for our climatic conditions. All varieties can be divided into three groups, depending on when to clean the daikon. They can be early, mid early and late. The first group reaches maturity in 40-50 days. When removing a daikon from a garden bed, it is usually indicated on a bag of seeds. For storage, of course, it is best to choose late varieties. Of the cylindrical, the most popular are "baton", "minovashi", "elephant's fang", "big bull". All of them are mid-season. The spherical shape of the root crop is the Sasha variety.
How to grow daikon?
The growing period to full maturity is an average of 60-70 days. Sowing seeds is best done in mid-summer, in July. The soil should be light and fertile. Remember that the vegetable is large enough and will require a lot of space. The soil needs to be dug deep, add humus and superphosphate (40 g per square meter). If you do not want to thin out the bed later, it is best to immediately sow the seeds one at a time, at a distance of 10 centimeters, between the rows you need to leave space up to 0.5 meters. So it will be more convenient to water, loosen the plants and it is easy to recognize the time when to clean the daikon. You can plant three seeds in one hole for safety, then at the stage of two leaves you will need to leave the largest plant, pull out the rest or transplant to another place. If the daikon is planted too early, then most likely it will go into the arrow and bloom. This is due to the fact that this is a short daylight plant, therefore it is advisable to plant a daikon in the second half of summer.
Watering and feeding
The daikon does not like waterlogging, but it will also grow poorly in drought. Therefore, the main thing in this matter is moderation. Watering with fertilizer should be carried out after the appearance of three real leaves. To use for this it is best infusion of mullein and urea.
Diseases and Pests
The very first and main enemy is a cruciferous flea, it damages leaves very strongly. For scaring use ash, which is sprinkled with moist soil in the garden. To prevent its occurrence, many gardeners recommend planting a daikon with onions. This can be done in a checkerboard pattern. In May, you need to plant onions at a distance of 20 cm from each other. And after 1-1.5 months to plant daikon seeds. By this time, onion greens will noticeably grow, the smell of which in a surprising way repels the pest. You can also use the infusion of hot red pepper for watering.
Another daikon lover is wireworms. They significantly damage the pulp of the root crop, making numerous holes, such vegetables will be practically unsuitable for storage. It is very difficult to get rid of wireworms, since, as a rule, the entire soil on the site is infected.
The wireworm is the larva of the nutcracker. To destroy it, you need to plant legumes and mustard after the main crop from the site is harvested. The introduction of coniferous needles into the soil in the spring helps. Late autumn plowing of the garden is also effective, when frosts already begin. This contributes to the destruction of larvae.
Radish daikon: when to clean?
Harvesting is carried out depending on the variety in 40-70 days. Late-ripening varieties need to be cleaned after the establishment of cold, dry weather, but before frost. If the temperature drops below zero, then root crops, at least the ground, protruding part, will be damaged. In the future, this will prevent long-term storage. Therefore, it is important for each variety to know its time - when to clean the daikon. If the soil is heavy, then you can’t pull out the tops; the too long root will break. In this case, you need to carefully dig out a shovel or pitchfork.
After this, the daikon should be allowed to lie in the air so that the earth that remained on it dries and crumbles. But do not keep the vegetable in direct sunlight, it can begin to flabble.
How to store daikon?
For better preservation, you need to choose the best root crops, without damage, breakage, cracks, even and smooth. Therefore, it is important to know how and when to remove the daikon from the garden. Carefully cut the tops with scissors. Prepare coarse river sand, sift it. Large wooden crates will be required. Lay the daikon in even rows and pour each layer with plenty of sand. Store boxes in the basement at a temperature not lower than zero, but also not higher than 5 degrees of heat, and low humidity. If the vegetable is too large and cannot be used at a time, then it can be placed in a bag and stored on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. If you know how to store daikon correctly, observe the thermal regime and humidity, then the root crop will lie for at least three months.