How to Grow Garden Radishes

Radishes are red, white or purple.

Most people know radishes only as small, strongly flavored additions to restaurant salads. These root vegetables actually grow in a range of sizes, colors and flavors, though, and they can be quite sweet with the right care. Grow your own garden radishes with careful soil and site selection, and harvest both early and late for juicy, crunchy and tasty vegetables.

Things You'll Need

• Organic compost
• Garden or hand fork
• Mulch

Instructions

1. Start planting radishes when temperatures rise to 45 degrees Fahrenheit in the spring. Radish seeds germinate with some frost, and the vegetable grows best in cool, moist environments of 50 to 65 degrees F.

2. Put radishes in the established garden, in spots with four to six hours of sun every day and quick drainage. Radishes rot in standing water from spring storms. Set aside 5 to 7 square feet of space for the radish plot.

3. Dig into the top 5 to 7 inches of soil to break it up. Radishes require loose, crumbly soil for growth, and fail in tight or rocky soil. Mix 2 to 3 inches of organic compost into the soil to increase nutrition. Maintain moisture between watering sessions.

4. Plant one row of radish seeds in your first planting. Push the seeds 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, every 1 to 1-1/2 inches in the row.

5. Water the radishes with 2 inches of water every week to keep them consistently moist. Lay 2 inches of organic mulch over the soil to keep it moist and free of weeds. Radishes won't grow in dry or crowded soil.

6. Plant a second row of radishes 12 to 24 inches from the first, 10 to 12 days after the first planting. Plant another row 10 to 12 days later, and so on. This staggered planting ensures a continuous radish harvest into early summer. Discontinue radish plantings three to four weeks ahead of summer heat.

7. Harvest radishes at their maturity dates, or when individual radishes measure 1 inch in diameter. Smaller, earlier radishes produce sweeter, more tender flesh.

Tips & Warnings

• Plant radishes between larger, slower-growing plants to use garden space efficiently.

References

• University of Illinois Extension; Watch Your Garden Grow: Radish; Ron Wolford and Drusilla Banks
• Clemson Cooperative Extension; Carrot, Beet and Radish; Marjan Kleupfel and Powell Smith; April 2003