Are you having plants growing to seeds too early?
As I spread radish seeds in my aquaponics growbed, I am thinking of the nice radish I will be able to eat. 4 weeks later the plants have grown to full size but they haven’t produced what I expected…
Plants are growing seeds…
A radish is supposed to grow a nice and fat tubercular type of root. It is crunchy and peppery and just thinking about it makes me want one with butter and a pinch of salt! 🙂
Ok lot of you are already thinking wait a minute! It’s not the only thing you eat from the radish, we also eat the leaves. Yes it’s true, the leaves are very good as well, you can even cook them in a nice soup.
The point being is that leaves are the only thing I grew from those seeds. The roots remained long and thin.
What is it due to?
To be very honest I am not very sure. There are several options.
High potassium concentration can be responsible for plants producing flowers and seeds sooner and in larger quantity. We generally increase the potassium level when we want to grow nice flowers and fruits.
Potash in aquaponics…
Few months ago I added a little bit of potassium in my setup and it may have cause the radish to grow directly seeds and no tubercule reserve.
Sun exposition and temperatures can also influence the frustification and provoque the radish plant to go into seeds without growing the tubercule.
an acceptable range for the ecosystem
Unlike hydroponics, in aquaponics we are growing a whole ecosystem. We don’t create the best conditions for each specific plant but maintain an appropriate environment for the ecosystem in general. The parameters are often varying but our role is to keep them in the acceptable range for the ecosystem.
Welcome here! If you are new, you will probably be interested to discover Jonathan’s six steps to build and manage an Aquaponics system. Click here to access for free! Thanks and good reading 🙂
