Hope springs eternal, at least with radishes

Every year I try to grow radishes. Every year I get about a half-dozen that are edible and dozens of others that never develop correctly. And after picking all of the radishes I swear I will never try growing radishes again.

Guess what I did this spring?

Yup.

I'm going to try a few different things this time. For starters, I'm trying to fertilize every single week. So far so good. I'm also thinning them out this time. Normally I don't do that, but I had a bunch of seed that was getting old so I planted kind of heavy and the seedlings are rather crowded.

There's no way all of those little sprouts have a chance to develop those glorious orb roots. They really should have about two inches of space between plants. Anything that is underdeveloped (only primary leaves), roots over exposed, or growing crooked is getting yanked. After that it's a matter of choosing based on spacing.

Here's the same patch after thinning.

A good soak with the watering can and they will perk up again. But what about all the plants I yanked out? Because radishes are a root crop it's not a good idea to transplant them as it can cause problems with root development.

I feel guilty letting them go to waste. Conveniently though I have some volunteers for making these disappear.