[Anke]

I every so often binge-watch Huw Richards on youtube.... he mentioned in one of his videos that he likes to keep some of his radishes on to flowering/seed setting and eats the seed pods - I was intrigued and left some of my radishes to go to flower.... and I have to say the seed pods taste amazing - small but nice, crunchy and quite spicy. Only problem is... very few of the plants set seed, despite loads of flowers... my question is: Does anyone do this with their radishes and if yes, have you found a particular good seed-setting variety to grow? Are early ones better than mid-summer sown ones (as were mine). I am keen to grow enough for a funky ferment next year...

[Terry T]

It may be that you had poor seed set as a result of pollen beetles eating the pollen rather than radish variety - we certainly have problems setting  seed from rocket in mid summer for this reason. Try sowing at different times to see if this can help.

[Anke]

Yes, I will do a more structured experiment next year, lack of pollinating insects (or eating of the pollen) may well be an issue....

[Q]

@Anke I have some radishes at this stage - are you eating the green pods or waiting till they go brown?

[Fleecewife]

Thomson&Morgan used to sell a variety specifically for eating the pods, which were larger than normal radish seed pods.  I think it might have been called Munchen Bier (apologies for the lack of an umlaut - I don't know how to make my keyboard spit one out)  I didn't find them any superior to normal radish pods.  I let a patch go to seed this year too, but only a couple of plants actually set seed at all, so I let them mature and sprinkle themselves around - my idea of perennials 

[Anke]

@Anke I have some radishes at this stage - are you eating the green pods or waiting till they go brown?

No, you eat them green. Just a wee snack here, not many have set seeds, though the bees and other insects are very busy in there just now.

[Anke]

Thomson&Morgan used to sell a variety specifically for eating the pods, which were larger than normal radish seed pods.  I think it might have been called Munchen Bier (apologies for the lack of an umlaut - I don't know how to make my keyboard spit one out)  I didn't find them any superior to normal radish pods.  I let a patch go to seed this year too, but only a couple of plants actually set seed at all, so I let them mature and sprinkle themselves around - my idea of perennials 

Thanks, I have checked München Bier out, will give them a try next spring. (German keyboard has "Umlauts" on its main set of keys....)