Every garden has its challenges: Florence fennel that refuses to make a sizeable bulb, spinach that bolts immediately, corn that’s full of tunneling, or kernel-wrecking worms. But every once in awhile, there comes a plant that gives and gives and doesn’t ask much more than a space to give it. Like radishes.
I see these spicy little roots as a gardener’s “encouragement plant” with a seed that is quick to sprout, easy to grow, and lightning-fast to harvest. While you patiently wait for parsnips to mature and tomatoes to redden, radishes are there every step of the way, and offering harvest well before much of anything else is even close to ready.
Though they are often used only as decorations or somewhat offhand salad inclusions, these plants are good for far, far more than decorative rosettes on some fancy cheese platter. If you haven’t tried growing radishes in your garden, give them a shot. They don’t care about your gardening skill level which makes them a perfect crop for children, newbie gardeners, and frustrated green thumbs who could use a little morale boost.
Requirements For Growing Radishes
Radishes are a cool-weather crop that provides their flavorsome bulbs in the spring and fall. Their needs are few, but the one thing they really can’t tolerate is summer heat. They’ll pretty much bolt immediately — leaving you some pastel, starry flowers and very little else.
Like the majority of your garden, they need rich, well-draining soil. Keep them well-watered for the best results. As a cool-weather crop, the spring and fall rains should help.
Since they are technically a root crop, well-tilled soil free of rocks will give you the most satisfying, blemish-free, and well-formed roots. If you have really rocky soil, a raised bed is a fast-track to a flavorsome harvest. Treat winter radishes with the same, well-tilled care that you would offer a carrot. If you want that 10-inch root (or bigger), you’ll need to make sure you have cultivated as deep.
Planting Radish Seeds
Growers in zones 2 through 10 can start sowing their pink, pebble-like seeds 4 to 6 weeks before the last expected frost date. Plant them about 1/2-inch deep in rows about 12 inches apart. Make sure they’re in full sun — too shady a location, and you’ll get more leaves than roots. Radishes are really hardy when it comes to cold, and they grow like lightning, so there’s no point in starting them indoors.
如果你希望连续收获,每两周播种一次,直到最高温度达到90华氏度(这时你需要休息一下)。一旦高温过去,你可以在第一次霜冻前4 - 6周开始连续播种,以再次修复你的萝卜!
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冬天的萝卜稍有不同。在酷暑过后的夏末播种,这样它们就有时间长得足够大,为你的秋季收获和随之而来的冬季储存做好准备。
When their bright green seed leaves emerge, you do want to be ruthless about thinning them. Crowded radishes just don’t develop nicely, and radish sprouts are fabulous as a micro-green (so your thinnings are really good salad toppings).
Radishes are wonderful friends to nearly everyone else in the garden and an ideal companion plant. They are a great way to loosen and aerate the soil for mid-summer plantings. Harvesting long, tapered varieties like icicle radishes, grants carrots, parsnips, and other root crops the extra room they crave to expand later in the year. The 3-day germination rate is also useful to mark where slow-to-germinate seeds have been planted.
Radish Pests And Diseases
As long as you don’t try to grow them in a heatwave, radishes are relatively problem-free. Flea beetles might bore some holes in the leaves, and you may find some occasional cabbage root fly larvae, but most growers will find that radishes fall on the super easy side of the spectrum.
Harvesting Radishes
For many varieties, the prime time to harvest their colorful roots is when they are around an inch across — though winter-type daikon and giant radishes are an exception to that rule because they get much bigger. Timing radish harvest is a bit of an art form, but they grow so quickly that you have lots of chances to do it right.
Harvest them too soon, and the root will be tasty, but too small. Let them linger in the soil too long, and the root will be woody, tough, and a little bitter. If you mess up in either case, don’t despair, the greens are still well worth your effort. Every time you pull a radish from the ground, you’re really getting two harvests.
The prickly greens lose all their spines once cooked and are absolutely delicious. I’m convinced that one of the biggest crimes against cultivation is the waste of these delicious greens. Though they’re often condemned prematurely to the compost pile in favor of their more popular parts, beet greens, carrot greens, fennel greens, and (pertinent to this article) radish greens are an absolutely delicious additional harvest that can be gleaned from your cultivated plot.
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不要…我再说一遍,不要简单地为了它们炽热的球茎而种植萝卜。你会错过的。Sauté把这些青菜和一些油,盐,胡椒和大蒜放在锅里。一旦你尝过它们的美味,你就会发誓再也不浪费它们了。
Radish Varieties
There are several types of radishes that could grace your garden patch beyond the round, red globes that populate any salad bar. Spring/summer/salad radishes (as the familiar, quick-growing varieties are often called) are harvested in the season for which they are named, and are peppery in flavor. They can be harvested in as little as 3 to 4 weeks after sowing — truly, lighting speed!
另一方面,冬季萝卜需要更长的生长季节,可以在根窖中储存长达6个月,而且通常口味更甜。就像萝卜一样。它们需要整整70天或更长时间才能收获。
One of the delights of growing radishes is the range of colors: bright, flaming red, golden yellow, purple, pink, white, black, and even bright green ones with watermelon-pink centers. Explore some of these varieties for a veritable rainbow of easily grown, fresh food.
Cherry Belle
This spring/summer radishis the variety that you may think of when you hear the word. It’s a bright red, cheery little ball of flavor that is beautiful to hold and eat. They are a delight to pull out of the soil.
French Breakfast
I like growingthese spring/summer radishesin the garden for their happy, two-toned, oblong roots. True to their name, we often enjoy them first thing on a spring morning. Slice these radishes fresh atop eggs, and sauté the greens alongside for a lovely breakfast.
Watermelon Radish
Able to grow to the size of a softball and featuring a hot-pink, slightly spicy-sweet center,the watermelon radish(winter variety) really does resemble the summery fruit.
Shawo Fruit Radish
I’ve not grownthis winter radish但我觉得很有趣。水果萝卜是一种独特的又脆又甜的中国品种,据说它吃起来更像新鲜的梨,而不是我们熟知的那种火辣辣的小球茎。它经常作为茶的配菜。
Singara Rat’s-Tail Radish
Specifically cultivated forits flavorful pods(尽管严格来说每个萝卜荚都是可以食用的),把长长的、卷曲的萝卜丝放入炒菜中,或者腌制它们,作为晚餐的美味配菜。
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然而,除了这些,还有更多的种类。经过数千年的栽培,萝卜被世界各地的园丁们喜爱并培育出不同的口味和颜色。你最喜欢种什么?
Radish Background
Radishes have been a source of food for a long time. So long, in fact, their very name carries a note of veneration. With the wide array of delicious root vegetables that we know and grow, radishes are the ones to bear a name derived from the Latin radix — a word that that literally translates to root. The genus name (Rhaphanus) is derived from a Greek word that means easily reared — which is something that anyone who grows radishes truly knows.
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