Diakon Radishes

I've recently come to recognized a plant that I didn't know about before this autumn.
It's the Diakon Radish.  I see it in several fields which I pass on my normal running routes

 

It's the big leafy thing.  The leaves are like a cross between Collard Greens and a Fern.

 

It's used in no-till farming to aerate the soil.  It grows a huge root that spikes down in to the earth for a foot or more, but then dies off and the radish rots away, leaving holes in to the soil.

 

I pulled this one from the berm of the road.  No field was damaged in the creation of this blog post. 

 

 It often seems to be mixed with other cover crops, or cover plants.  This field, below, has the radish mixed in with some type of grass or wheat.

 

 

This field is a mixture of radish and clover, or alfalfa.

I first learned about Daikon Radish from Scott Breneman, from Goodwill at Homefield Farms, a CSA over in Millersville. He came to talk at our Rotary club a few weeks ago.  If you are the hearty sort, you can read about it in our weekly Rotary Newsletter.  It starts on the second page, halfway down.