Thirty three days in and the Minowase Summer Cross in Buddy’s Cairns plot has stopped looking like a seedling and started looking like an actual root crop. Leaves are up around 25 to 30cm, full canopy over the row now, and I can see the first pale shoulders pushing up at soil level on about half the bed. That’s the tell. Roots are bulking, not just running leaf.
The other half of the bed is a fortnight behind, roughly. Same seed packet, same sowing day, different result. I’m not going to pretend that’s mysterious. It’s the shadier end of the bed, gets less afternoon sun once the neighbour’s mango throws shade past 2pm. Noted for next round, not fixed for this one.
The job this week
Side dressing, not mulching. Daikon at this stage wants a light feed to push the root through its bulking phase, a handful of complete fertiliser worked in along the row, watered straight in, kept off the foliage. I’m holding off on extra mulch depth because the shoulders need to stay visible so I can eyeball sizing without digging.
Pest watch is aphids, not caterpillars this time. Checked the undersides of the outer leaves this morning and found a small cluster starting on two plants near the fence line. Squashed by hand for now. If it spreads past a few plants I’ll be back with the hose on jet setting before I reach for anything else.
The risk right now
Cairns dry season means irrigation is entirely on me, and the sandy loam in this bed drains fast. Daikon roots split and fork when they go from bone dry to sodden and back, so the real job this fortnight isn’t the feed, it’s keeping the watering boring and consistent.
Twenty seven days to the expected pull date. The bed’s ahead of schedule and behind schedule at the same time, which is either a contradiction or just gardening.
