I didn’t try my first radish until I was nearly 30 years old. I immediately loved their crunchy sweet-spicy flavor. I added radish to my shopping list almost weekly for years. I ate them fresh, dipped in ranch, or on top of a salad as well as sautéed with butter and garlic as a delicious side. When I started gardening one tip that kept coming up was GROW WHAT YOU EAT. I set out to find seeds and was amazed at all of the colors and shapes that radish comes in! At our local grocery stores, your options are round and red or… Red and round.
Here in the Arizona desert, we grow radish fall through early spring, In what we call our “winter” or cool growing season. In the first season of growing radish, I grew a handful of varieties (mostly red) and enjoyed how quickly they go from seed to harvest. They average about 40 days in our garden with partial winter shade. However, they can be ready in 30 days or less with better sun exposure! Their quick days to harvest make them a great succession planting option. We often pull our fully developed radish and plant new seeds right away or succession plant in between other veggies and greens that stay in the garden longer, like kale or brassicas. This ensures we maximize our low-maintenance growing season & have an abundance through the holidays.
Here is our Fall-Winter 2020 Radish Variety List
Golden Radish
Icicle Radish
Golden Helios Radish
Watermelon Radish
Purple Plum Radish
Black Spanish Radish
Early Scarlet Globe Radish
Champion Radish
Crimson Giant Radish
Sparkler Radish
Cherry Belle Radish
French Dressing Radish
White Hailstone Radish
Japanese Minowase Daikon Radish
Snow White Daikon Radish
That is a whopping 15 varieties. I can’t wait to taste each one!
Planting Info-
To grow radish sprinkle seeds on top of soil or if you like uniform rows you can also plant them about 1 inch apart in rows about 8-10 inches apart. Then you will want to sprinkle a thin (⅛-¼ inch) layer of fine soil over the seeds. Keep the area moist until germination and then water when the top 1 inch of soil is dry. That’s it! Just 30 to 40 days and you should begin to have beautiful radish.
I seed radish every few weeks in the fall and winter or as space allows. I tend to interplant radish seeds after harvests. During this mid-season seeding rather than using my fine soil to cover the seeds, I will sprinkle worm castings, mushroom compost, or sifted compost to give everything a mid-season boost of nutrients.
Radishes are a great companion plant option for growing near lettuce, beets, carrots, peas, and parsnips, among other warmer-season crops like corn and beans (which we don’t grow because they are out of season).
Looking for a way to preserve your radish harvest? Check out our Pickled Radish recipe.
