One of the first radishes delivers vitamin products to our table. And even if there is little nutritional value in it, it is respected: after all, it launches a conveyor of continuous receipt of the crop, which will work for several months. Sowing radishes is easy, but not everywhere and not always, it grows quite full.
The timing of planting radish seeds in the ground, the germination time
Radish is an early-growing and cold-resistant crop, it is possible to sow it early, and in a month it’s time to harvest the earliest varieties. You can get a radish crop all summer, but only in spring there is an urgent need for it: then other vegetables come to replace the radish.
Radish sprouts tolerate frosts -4 aboutC, and adult plants withstand and -6 aboutFROM. It is sown when the soil warms up to at least 7 aboutC, and plants develop best and root crops form at 16-20 aboutC. In principle, the seeds germinate already at the minimum positive temperature, but with long-term cold weather, not root crops, but only flower arrows can be obtained from seedlings.
Therefore, if there is a desire to sow seeds very early (in March), grooves should be shed with hot water, and cover the crops with non-woven materials. This can be done already when only the topsoil of 3-4 cm has thawed.
Radish is not afraid of the cold, and even its shoots do not die in the light frost
The best dates for planting radishes are in April: in the middle lane in the middle of the month, in the south - at the beginning, and most often already in March, and in the north - closer to May Day holidays. Seeds peck quickly: in warm weather, this can happen after 4-5 days, in April, with moderate heat, after a week or a half.
After harvesting, you can re-sow the radish, but the last sowing is carried out no later than the end of May: from the June or July sowing you can get only blooms, since the radish does not set root crops during a long daylight hours. You can, of course, cover the beds daily from the sun, but "it’s not worth it." True, there are non-shooting varieties (Vera, Tarzan, etc.), but it is better to resume sowing, if you wish, only in August.
Selection and preparation of soil, beds
Not all gardeners get good radishes. It does not tolerate shading at all, grows poorly in clay soils. The culture feels best on nutrient soils of light composition. Sand must be added to clay soils. Radish should not grow in a bed fertilized with fresh manure, but humus must be added in the fall. Norm - up to two buckets per 1 m2.
Radish grows best after cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, carrots. Bad predecessors are all cruciferous, including any cabbage.
In spring, a bed prepared from autumn is only loosened with a heavy rake, after sprinkling 30-40 g of ammonium nitrate or urea per 1 m2. In those regions where it is customary to arrange high beds, this is also the case in the case of radish planting, more often this is not mandatory.
Checking seeds for germination and preparing them for planting
Radish seeds are stored for a rather long time: germination begins to decline only after 5 years. If old seeds are in the house, before sowing it is better to check their germination in the usual way: put a dozen seeds on a damp cloth and keep at room temperature. After 10 days, those that could ascend will certainly ascend. After counting the number of seedlings, you can decide for yourself whether to buy fresh seeds.
Radish seeds are quite large, it’s easy to handle
To get powerful root crops in the early stages, the seeds can be calibrated using special sieves: the best seeds have a diameter of at least 2 mm. You do not need to do anything else with them, usually radishes are sown with dry seeds.
Some lovers soak the seeds for 6-8 hours, or even wait until they bite. It is unlikely that this makes much sense: the crop can ripen only 1-2 days earlier, and there will be more hassle with hardened seeds. In addition, such seeds in the event of unexpected frosts may die.
Rules for planting radish seeds in open ground, planting patterns
Sowing seeds in the garden is done according to the usual rules for a gardener. With the corner of a hoe or with the help of a reiki, shallow grooves are made at a distance of 10 cm for early ripe varieties to 15-20 cm for late ripe ones. The earliest varieties, as a rule, need a small feeding area, and the seeds are laid out every 3 cm. For late-ripening varieties, 5 to 8 cm are left between the seeds. A denser planting will lead not to save space, but to a deplorable result: good root crops cannot be obtained.
The depth of sowing seeds is 1.5-2 cm: since the radishes are quite large, you can decompose them individually. If there are a lot of seeds, sometimes they are sown in the "salt bed" method, but immediately after emergence they should be thinned out without interruption. After sowing, the seeds are sprinkled with soil, or it is possible with humus or peat, and the bed is slightly crushed.
Sowing technique is no different from sowing seeds of most vegetables
There is a small specificity of sowing seeds of those varieties of radishes that produce elongated root crops (for example, an icicle). This radish during the growth of root crops is slightly spud. To make it easier to do this, when sowing, deeper furrows are prepared, up to 5 cm deep, but the seeds laid out in them are still covered with only a two-centimeter layer of soil: until the end of the furrow they are covered later.
The garden bed is carefully watered from a watering can with a strainer and covered with a film until the seedlings appear. If stable heat has already been established, you can use spanbond, or even do without shelter.
Video: sowing radish seeds in the garden
Some gardeners sow radishes in egg cartons. Thus, they achieve seed savings and make sowing more even. The tops are cut off in the cells, laid out on a bed with the holes down, the cells are pressed a little. For strength, they are pinned to the ground, for example, with thick wire. Calibrated seeds are sown, one in each resulting “hole”, after which the cells are filled with soil and watered.
In egg cells, radishes can be sown more evenly
Care and Harvest
Caring for a radish is simple, but it is needed constantly: the bed cannot be left for a week. Therefore, those summer residents who can visit sites only on weekends rarely grow good root crops. It's all about watering: the bed should never dry out. Even a layer of mulch does not always save, you need to water the radish often. Soil moisture should be at least 80% of the maximum possible. If you don’t water the radish, the root crops will either not grow at all, or they will be excessively bitter, and most often from a drought the plants just go in the direction of the arrow.
But it is also impossible to swamp the garden: too much water can lead to cracking of root crops. Nevertheless, even in normal weather the radish has to be watered daily (morning or evening), and in dry weather - twice a day. Actually, on fertile soils, nothing more is needed, except for periodic loosening of the soil and weeding of the beds from weeds. Many gardeners do not feed radishes at all: for a month of life, he has enough fertilizers added to the garden. If the soil is not nutritious enough, give 1-2 fertilizing infusion of mullein with the addition of wood ash. In the absence of mullein, mineral fertilizers with a low nitrogen content can also be used.
You can take for feeding special mixtures for root crops
Radish does not ripen at the same time, but rather amicably. The first root crops are selectively pulled out as they are ready, but a maximum of a week later it will be necessary to harvest the entire crop. It is better to pull out the radish in the morning, watering the garden in the evening. The crop is not stored for long, for a maximum of a week in the refrigerator, and this is not required: usually radishes are eaten right away, right from the garden.
Radish is an early ripe culture, every gardener tries to grow it. This is not difficult to do, but you must be prepared for the fact that you will have to take care of the garden every day.
