What are the reasons why radishes grow to a smaller size?

After months of running around, the Wang Min Land Share Cooperative of Jixie, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, caught the tail end of the main spring production season and drove a rotary tiller directly into a field where radish bolts stood taller than a person, crushing the radishes on the spot and returning them to the field. "There was no time to harvest them. Any later and the losses for the main spring season would have been even greater." Cooperative head Wang Min sighed helplessly.

Why were the large white radishes that should have been harvested and sent to market long ago left to rot in the field? Behind this lies a dispute over genuine and fake radish seeds involving more than 300 farming households and losses amounting to one million yuan.

Radishes nearly half the size of the trial-planted variety

⟦NL> Wang Min, a 27-year-old from Chongzhou, entered the farming business five years ago under Yang Guangjun of Dunhou Community, Xilai Town, Pujiang County, renting land each minor spring season in nearby Pujiang, Jianyang, and other places to grow a season of radishes, gradually expanding from a few dozen mu to several hundred mu. Last year, at the urging of leaders from the Jixie Township Government in Chongzhou City, Wang Min, Yang Guangjun, and several other large radish growers took the lead in establishing the "Wang Min Land Share Cooperative of Jixie, Chongzhou City," encouraging villagers to join with land shares. That year it attracted more than 320 farming households, covering more than 420 mu.

After the 2014 main spring harvest, the cooperative's board of directors met to discuss minor spring production matters, and everyone agreed to plant the "Disease-Resistant Doctor Chunguang Type A" radish produced by Beijing Baimotian Seedling Co., Ltd. Wang Min told reporters that last year, on the recommendation of an acquaintance, he had trial-planted more than 40 mu. Although the seed price was much higher than ordinary varieties on the market, he was very satisfied with the results. "The radishes were long and white, with excellent market quality. The yield reached about 20,000 jin per mu, and the selling price was also high," Wang Min said.

Because there was no dealer in Chengdu selling this radish variety, cooperative shareholder Yang Guangjun and others made a special trip to Tongnan County, Chongqing, and bought 800 cans of seeds from dealer Wang Yuanhua at 80 yuan per can. In addition, Yang Guangbing of the Pujiang Guangbing Professional Cooperative, after hearing the introduction from his older brother Yang Guangjun, also bought 200 cans of seeds.

"The variety name and packaging of the seeds were the same as the radish seeds trial-planted before, and they were bought from a qualified dealer. I also had a formal invoice, so I thought there should be no mistake," Wang Min recalled. From September to October 2014, more than 300 mu were planted one after another.

Based on past trial-planting experience and the labeling on the seed cans, radishes needed only 55 to 60 days from sowing to harvest. But when the harvest season arrived, Wang Min found they were not big enough. After waiting another week, still no good. After waiting another month, they still had not grown.

At the same time, in Yang Guangbing's plot in Tonglu Village, Qionglai City, Sichuan, he also found that the "Disease-Resistant Doctor Chunguang Type A" radishes were very short and small. In sharp contrast, 300 meters away in Huang Jianyun's field (Huang Jianyun is from Shou'an Town, Pujiang, and rents land in Longdang Village, Muli Town, Qionglai to grow radishes), the same "Disease-Resistant Doctor Chunguang Type A" radishes had excellent appearance, generally more than 30 centimeters long, while those in his own field were only about 10-plus centimeters.

What exactly was going on? To get to the bottom of it, Wang Min and Yang Guangjun discussed it and used the remaining seeds to plant more than 60 mu before the New Year, managing them carefully, but the result was still the same.

Poor appearance makes selling difficult; negotiations fail and radishes rot in the field

"In recent years the market has favored long radishes. If the radish length does not reach 30 centimeters, basically no one will buy them," Wang Min told reporters. He called old customers in Guangzhou and Beijing one by one, begging them to try selling them. The Guangzhou customer helped haul away two truckloads, but the first truck did not even cover the freight, and the second truck's loading and unloading workers' wages of seven to eight thousand yuan could not be paid.

Why had seeds that performed very well in trial planting the previous year changed this year? "Could there be a problem with the seeds?" Wang Min asked the Chongzhou City Agriculture Bureau for help and contacted seed dealer Wang Yuanhua.

The local agriculture bureau and police station presided over multiple mediation and negotiation sessions, but none went smoothly. Dealer Wang Yuanhua insisted there was no problem with the seeds and that the short, small radishes were caused by improper planting by the cooperative, specifically excessive dense planting. During the mediation and investigation process, the seed producer Beijing Baimotian Seedling Company sent people twice, but also insisted that the "Disease-Resistant Doctor Chunguang Type A" radish was of qualified quality.

"I had thought of selling these radishes that could not be sold fresh at a low price to a pickling factory, to recover at least some losses, but the dealer did not acknowledge the area of the plots already harvested. In order to preserve evidence, I did not dare dispose of them," Wang Min told reporters.

After several months, the radish leaves and branches had grown taller than a person, and the radishes in the field had already rotted. "If calculated according to the market price at the time, a conservative estimate is that the cooperative could have made a profit of one million yuan," Wang Min told reporters. Around the Spring Festival, the radish market was booming, and one jin could sell for more than one yuan. "We finally encountered a bull market, and I thought we could give the members a big red envelope, but in the end more than 400,000 yuan in costs for seeds, land rent, fertilizer, and other inputs went down the drain. Even now we cannot pay wages." Wang Min felt very vexed when he thought of it.