Radishes with Tough Skins

So I'm a rank beginner gardener, taking it seriously for the first time ever in the community garden plot I have. I'd heard rumours of how easy it is to grow radishes, and it's absolutely true: I've had dozens of radishes sprout and grow -very- big, and they are delicious. I have them kind of mixed all around in my garden spot, in-between potatoes, onions, Swiss chard, a couple ginger rhizomes that haven't done anything, and now bush lima beans.

I've noticed that some of the radishes have a surprisingly thick skin. I eat them raw 99.9% of the time, and end up peeling off the skin in order to eat these. It's maybe one out of every four or five radishes that will exhibit these characteristics. This didn't seem to happen in the earlier harvests.

Is there any way to prevent this? Is this, on the other hand, "the way radishes otta be?" Is this a sign of waiting to long before harvesting? I have reserved a few for bolting so I can have seeds for next year, but not the ones I harvest to eat.

They are apparently the "German Giant" variety. Besides these tough skins on occasion, they are fantastic. Other animals have sneaked in and eaten a few on occasion. Not using any toxic gick on anything, no plastic ground-cover. It's typical garden soil, with a layer of organic humus laid down beneath it.

Thanks for reading and for providing any insight...!

From what I've seen with growing radishes indoors, the skin may peel/flake a bit as it grows, but a tough skin is a sign of it getting closer to bolting or waiting too long to harvest.

One "solution" that I've seen people do is to plant twice the number of radishes and then harvest them when they're half the regular harvest size.

I have to agree...if the ones earlier in the season were not tough..these are getting ready to go to seed so they are tough..

I don’t plant everything at once.  I plant fast growers like radishes, spinach, carrots in “ waves” .  I seed every 2 weeks or so through early summer so I have new growth coming on all the time.  Just a thought.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Seems like I should harvest more frequently/earlier to avoid this. I also really appreciate the suggestion on wave-planting, and I wonder how far into the season I can grow them. I think it would be great to cultivate radishes year-round.

Obviously, flowering is a sign of the transition of veggies to seed instead of eat. Are there other things I can look for so I know before harvesting that a radish will be developing this tougher skin?

Does anyone have thoughts on the most-effective way to retrieve seeds for next year (or later in the same season)? For example, what do you think of "one plant per wave," as Janet describes above? What if I allowed all my first crop of radishes to bolt, versus a few here and there throughout the growing season?

You can let things go to seed.  And you can save seed if the seed is true to type.  I just keep planting until things start to slow down; then I focus on cold crops like spinach.  I would probably just let my whole last wave go to seed if I wanted seed of something.

By the time fall comes I am busy drying, freezing etc. vegetables and fruits.  That’s the other part of the garden to plan for.

After you have harvested a few times you will come to understand how the seasons bring change to the garden. The garden never dies.  Even in the dead of winter it is working under the snow.

Since you’re in a community garden you have probably a wealth of knowledge available!  There is NOTHING gardeners like better than to teach other gardeners and to share.  Enjoy!

Janet Reed wrote:Since you’re in a community garden you have probably a wealth of knowledge available!  There is NOTHING gardeners like better than to teach other gardeners and to share.  Enjoy!

This is absolutely true in my experience, and it's been a blast. In fact, I think it's a sign that I'm doing well that the "old guard" gardeners are coming over and chatting with me about vegetables, complimenting me on my potatoes, etc.

It's a seismic shift from how things were last year, when the only communications I had with gardeners were periodic requests to "take care of the weeds."

Thanks again to you all for suggestions and guidance on my radish situation. :)

The perfect solution for radishes with tough skin might be to cook them.  I have cooked them like turnips and no one knew they were eating radishes.

A brief, quick update:

I let the remaining radishes flower and now they're producing seed pods. Later this week I'll add a photo or two of the pods on the plants as well as my harvesting process (as soon as the pods are ready) for those curious about it.

Hi Anne,

We regularly put radishes in stews.

It's been a minute, but I wanted to post some updates.

Here's a set of radish pods, all dried up and ready to harvest for seeds.



And here's one of my ginger plants. Just because.

I glad you're enjoying your gardening experience. Many of us find gardening a true joy.  Beware, it's addicting. Happy gardening.