John Myers
Small, red, and with a bite – radishes taste good and are healthy. Whether you want to plant radishes in the garden or on the balcony – it’s child’s play and hardly takes any work. It is the most uncomplicated type of vegetable for beginners and hobby gardeners.
Radishes sprout quickly and require little maintenance. Whether in the bed or planter – radishes can be sown and planted anywhere. For vigorous growth, they need humus-rich and well-drained soil. It must not be wet but should be kept constantly moist. Severe moisture differences make radishes furry or cause them to burst.
An improvement of the soil before planting can be done with compost and some sand. So the ground is perfectly prepared. For weak consumers like radishes, less is more. Too much nitrogen or fresh manure in the soil turns the tubers black and attracts pests and mice.
If you want to grow radishes between other vegetables, you should choose compatible neighbors such as lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, or beans. Melons and cucumbers are less suitable.
Radishes sprout at temperatures above 5°C. Sowing under foil is possible as early as February. They thrive outdoors from March to September. Depending on the season, there are special radish varieties. In the spring one reaches for the varieties.
- saxa
- Neckar pearl
- Cyrus
- giant butter
- These variants are recommended for summer and autumn cultivation.
- Ready
- sora
- Race
- Rudi
Radishes need space. Don’t sow them too close together. Otherwise only leaves grow, but no tubers. A row spacing of 10 centimeters and between the seeds about 4 centimeters have proven themselves in practice.
Do you always want freshly harvested radishes? Then it is advisable to replant them once or twice a month. They develop quickly and mature within four to six weeks. This is how you always bring freshly harvested radishes to the table.
Harvest radishes on time
If you want to enjoy tender, crunchy radishes, you have to harvest them in good time. If they are only grown when they bloom, wood cells form in the tuber and they taste typically woody. You can avoid this by harvesting and tasting individual radishes after four weeks. Whether small or large radishes taste better is a matter of taste. In general, however, the following applies the larger and older, the more woody.
Radishes are healthy and activate the immune system. They contain a lot of vitamin C, iron, and magnesium. The contained mustard oils provide a spicy taste and have an antibacterial effect.
Tips and tricks
It is worth planting rarer radish varieties. This is how you conjure up the variety on the menu and surprise with new taste highlights compared to the usual supermarket radishes. Different varieties, in white, purple, and even black are available.
