Radishes and Fertilizer

So... my first attempt at radishes didn't go so hot, the picture makes them look good! Not sure if the ground was too hard or I gave them too much nitrogen rich fertilizer. I had 3 or 4 radish looking radishes and a BUNCH of greens. Luckily Amy tells me that the greens can be quite tasty too. I will be calling her for a recipe...

This is a good example of why the correct fertilizer is important. Too much nitrogen promotes leaf growth instead of fruit growth. This is great if I am trying to grow foliage plants, not so much if I want radishes for my salad! So, read your plant description and your fertilizer description and make sure they coordinate. If you are lazy, or still learning, there are plant specific fertilizers out there. You can use one of these while learning about how much water and sun they need. You can also read the back of the bag or bottle and learn how much Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potash, is in each mix. Then it is on to learning what individual products (blood meal, kelp, fish emulsion etc) contain what percentage of each of these so in some cases you can mix your own and have less bags and bottles to store while still getting the happiest plants possible. I wish I could fill you in on what everything needs, but I'm still learning to not kill things with too much sun/ not enough, too much water/ not enough. Stay tuned and we'll learn together!