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Guide to Growing Radishes

Grow Your Own Guide

Everything you've ever wanted to know about growing your own.

  • One of the fastest and easiest crops to grow.
  • Great for getting children interested in gardening.
  • Suitable for growing in pots and close spacing.

Sowing and Growing

  • Radish quickly turn woody once fully grown, and then go to seed. Sow little and often from March through to September.
  • Wherever there is a small space, sow a pinch of seed thinly, spacing about 3 cm (1 inch) apart. Rake in or cover with 1 cm (½ inch) soil.
  • Radish benefit from shade during hot summers and can be grown in the shadow of other crops.
  • Keep moist if the weather is dry.
  • The Asian varieties (see Varieties below) grow much larger (roots up to 30 cm/12 inches). They have a longer growing period and the soil needs more preparation as for brassicas.
  • Sow the Asian varieties directly May–July 1–2 cm deep, spaced 10–13 cm apart in rows 25 cm apart. Earlier sowings tend to bolt.

Harvesting

  • Harvest salad radishes as soon as they are ready, before they become woody.
  • Asian radishes are ready in around 8 weeks and will often hold in the ground for a few weeks. Treat the larger winter radishes the same as parsnips, leaving them in the ground until required and protecting from frost with straw or fleece.

Pests and Problems

  • Radishes are a brassica and, therefore, susceptible to club root. However, salad radish grow too quickly for this to be a problem.
  • Slugs and flea beetles can be troublesome.
  • The Asian radishes can be troubled by club root. Read the advice on dealing with club root.

Varieties

  • French Breakfast 3 is a well-known salad variety and has the RHS Award of Garden Merit. You will find many other varieties in the seed catalogues.
  • Rudi is a dark red, globe shaped radish and is suitable for forcing under glass. It is another RHS Award of Garden Merit winner.
  • There are winter varieties of radish – Asian/Japanese types or mooli radishes. Tsukushi Spring Cross F1 is winter hardy and can be left in the ground until required or stored as with other root crops.

Eating

  • Radishes and their greens are a good source of vitamin C.
  • They are great used in a variety of salads, or just eaten on their own with some good bread and butter.
  • They can also be roasted together with other summer vegetables.

RHS Award of Garden Merit

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Timeline

Planting, cultivating and harvesting throughout the year. What to do when.

  • Sow successionally between March and September.
  • Radish are one of the fastest crops to mature, sometimes ready in as little as 18 days, but more often 20–30 days after sowing.
  • The Asian varieties are sown May–July and the large winter radishes in late summer; they should be treated like parsnips.

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