Allotment Growing

Growing Radish - How to Grow Radishes

The normal salad radish is one of the fastest and easiest crops to grow, which makes it ideal for getting children interested and enthused in gardening. They can be ready in as little as 18 days from sowing, although 20-30 days is more usual.

Although they are a brassica and theoretically susceptible to clubroot, in practice they develop too quickly to be bothered. Two pests do bother them, slugs nibbling the root and flea beetles.

Cultivating Radish

The radish is, because of its speed, very much a fit in crop. Normally you would ignore the salad radishes in a rotation plan. They like a light soil with plenty of humus but they are a very tolerant crop. Where there is a small space sow a pinch of seed thinly - about 3cm apart is ideal and rake in or cover with a centimetre of soil. As long as there is sufficient water they should develop.

Once grown they very quickly go woody and then to seed so sow weekly in the salad season to ensure a continuous supply. Don't bother if they go over, the seed is cheap so compost and harvest the ones sown the week after. In hot summers they benefit from some shade and can be grown in the shadow of other crops.

Radish has also been used as a marker crop. If you sow a row of parsnips, then you can over sow a row of radish that will be ready to harvest by the time the parsnips have germinated.

Varieties of Radish

The most well known variety is French Breakfast, white at the tip and red at the crown but there are many other salad varieties available which can be grown. In fact the range of colours is quite large, yellow, white, all red being available.

Asian Radishes or Mooli

Although we think of radish as a summer salad crop there are winter varieties, Japanese types or mooli radishes. These grow much larger with roots up to 30cm long. Since they are in the ground much longer the soil needs more preparation as for other root crops and club root becomes a consideration.

The Asian radishes are sown directly, usually about 1-2cm deep spaced around 10-13cm apart in rows 25cm apart. Most of these types are sown in May through July as earlier sowings will tend to bolt.

They are ready in around 8 weeks and will often hold for a few weeks in the ground before harvesting.

Large winter radish are sown later, usually late summer and should be treated as parsnips. Leave them in the ground until required, protecting with straw or fleece in frosty weather to enable them to be harvested if the ground should be frozen.

Recommended Varieties of Radish to Grow

Salad Radish

French Breakfast 3 Has won the RHS Award of Garden Merit Available It is very much the standard radish. I've tried other varieties but this is the one I always come back too. They are available from Suttons, Thompson & Morgan and Dobies. Suttons also offer them on tapes for easy spacing. Dobies offer large value packs as well.

For forcing early under glass, consider Rudi, a dark red globe shaped radish. Another RHS Award winner. Available from Thompson & Morgan

Mooli Radish

Tsukushi Spring Cross F1. Hybrid is fully winter hardy, with roots remaining in perfect condition over a long period. or they can be lifted and stored the same as other root crops.

Unlike most long, difficult to harvest Mooli varieties, Tsukushi produces shorter 25cm (10in) long roots, 6cm (2½in) in diameter. Best grown for autumn and winter production. Available from Thompson & Morgan

Resources

• List of Radish Seeds Available from the Allotment Shop
• List of Radish Seeds with Award of Garden Merit in the Allotment Shop
• General Brassica Information