Radishes

Growing Radishes.

The quickest way to a full grown vegetable is a radish seed. In just 22 days, you can have a Cherry Belle radish. I have seen many gardeners plant them just once in the spring, but I continually sprinkle radish seeds throughout the season.

Their benefits in the garden are numerous. Cucumber beetles are repelled by radishes. Radishes are an excellent trap crop, diverting the attention of flea beetles from your other crops. People will use them to mark a row where slow germinators are grown. If the soil is silty, a crust will form when drying after a heavy rain. Radishes can be planted along with other seeds to break that crust. Icicle radishes are planted as a fall cover crop to suppress weeds, break up the soil and add organic material to the soil (after the winter freeze.) 

They offer many health benefits. Radishes are powerful detoxifiers, thyroid boosters, cancer fighters and aid in weight loss, just to name a few. We are accustomed to serving them raw in salad or on a vegetable tray, but braised or sautéd, they are amazing. Our Hailstone radishes are excellent pickled because the skin does not bleed. For many reasons, radishes should be in every garden.

Sow radish seeds 1/2″ deep 1″ apart 4 to 6 weeks before the last spring frost. Thin to 2″ apart when seedlings sprout. They do not grow well when crowded, and will in many cases not form a bulb at all if too close together. Plant in sunny location, as radishes need full sun to produce a bulb. Keep evenly moist. Plant radish seeds successively throughout the cool spring season and late summer into fall.

While radishes are some of the easiest plants to grow, there are issues more common than others for the first time gardeners. This article, from the Spruce, covers the 4 we get asked about the most.

Good companion crops are peas, nasturtium, lettuce, cucumber, beets, spinach, carrots, squash, melons, tomatoes and beans. Bad companion crops are hyssop and brassicas.