2017-07-26 04:52 What animals eat daikon leaves?
Y (Kuma's owner)
I grow vegetables in the backyard. I used to grow broad beans but I didn't sow them this year to avoid replant failure. I sowed snow peas, onions and daikons. I found a small space to grow snow peas where I haven't grown broad beans before, so I don't have to worry about replant failure.
Usually, I can expect lots of peas this season but this year is different. Some animals sneak into the backyard veggie patch and eat peas and daikons. I have no idea what kind of animals eat my veggies. It's about once in every three days, I find my veggies are eaten, especially daikons.
Daikon is a very popular vegetable in Japan and I love it. It's a kind of root vegetable, like carrots. You can buy daikon in big cities like the Gold Coast or the area where many Asians live but not in my town. So, the only way to get daikon is to grow them myself. Luckily, one of the famous hardware shops in Australia, Bunnings, sells daikon seeds.
One morning, I saw three kangaroos hopping in the backyard and I found some daikon leaves were eaten. There were two footprints of kangaroos left in the veggie patch. I was wondering if kangaroos had eaten my daikons? There are other animals that eat vegetables around here. Possums love to eat fruit and vegetables as well. I know they live here.
The daikon leaf has tiny prickles. I think snow peas are more delicious than daikon leaves but something seems to love daikons more than snow peas. The Daikon is not a native plant of Australia. I don't know what animals eat daikon as at least I guess that this was the first time to encounter daikon for them. For me it's unlucky, for them it's lucky to know the taste of daikon leaf. Daikon leaf contains plenty of Vitamin C. Maybe it's good for them.
My biggest concern is what are they? This area is a habitat of bandicoots, echidnas, kangaroos, possums and some mice. I think bandicoots eat mostly insects and I don't think they eat daikon. If I could I would like to take a picture of them. Currently, all I can do is put baskets on each daikon seedling.