You Must Sow These in October
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Radishes ~ Planting, Growing, and Harvesting
Botanical name: Raphanus sativus
Plant type: Vegetable
USDA Hardiness Zones: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Sun exposure: Full Sun
Soil type: Any
Radishes are a hardy, cool-season vegetable that can produce many crops each season due to its rapid days to maturity. Radishes can be planted in both the spring and the fall, but growing should be suspended in the warmer months. They are a very easy vegetable to grow.
Planting
- Sow seeds one week before to one week after your last spring frost date, after aged manure or organic fertilizer has been worked into soil.
- Direct sow seeds ½ inch to an inch deep and one inch apart.
- Radishes need sun. If they are planted in too much shade—or even where neighboring vegetable plants shade them—they put all their energy into producing larger leaves.
- Practice three-year crop rotation.
- Plant consecutively every two weeks or so while weather is still cool for a continuous harvest of radishes.
- Plan on a fall planting. You can plant radishes later than any other root crop in late summer or early fall and still get a harvest.
Care
- Radishes require well-drained soil with consistent moisture.
- Thin radishes to about an inch apart when the plants are a week old. You will be amazed at the results.
Pests
- Cabbage Root Maggot
- Clubroot
Harvest/Storage
- Radishes will be ready to harvest quite rapidly, as three weeks after planting for some varieties.
- Do not leave in the ground long after mature stage, their condition will deteriorate quickly.
- Cut the tops off short, wash the radishes and dry them thoroughly. Store in plastic bags in the refrigerator.
- Radish greens can be stored separately for up to three days.
Recommended Varieties
- ‘French Breakfast’ late maturing variety, does ok in moderate heat.
- ‘Burpee White’ spring variety, white skin.
Recipes
Cooking Notes
- ‘French Breakfast’ late maturing variety, does well in moderate heat.
- ‘Burpee White’ spring variety, white skin.
Wit & Wisdom
Don’t be afraid to plant seeds that are up to five years old. All may not germinate, but you’ll have plenty that will.
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Benefits of Cover Crops or Green Manures
Cover crops and green manures are basically the same term. When these plants are alive they are cover crops. When the plants are decaying they are green manures. Green manuring has all the soil benefits of classic composting, plus other benefits:
Radishes, mustard greens, rape, kale – Great cheap fast growing cool season annual non-legumes for lots of foliage OM. A thick crop of mustard, rape, or kale is a great non-legume weed suppressor. a thick crop of radishes are great for repelling many bug pests all year round.
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