Grow
How to Grow Radish
Radishes are fast food! Radishes grow really quickly and can be ready to pick in just 4 to 8 weeks. They are colourful, round, red balls that are crisp and crunchy and ideal for slicing thinly into salads or making into fun edible critters!
Planting Tips
- Radish seeds only need to be sown 6mm deep, so don’t be tempted to plant them too deeply otherwise they won’t be able to grow.
- Sow the seeds in rows and once the seedlings come up you’ll need to thin them out if they are too crowded. This will give the radishes enough room to grow. Don’t waste the radishes you thin out – use the leaves and small red roots in salads.
Growing Guidelines
- Radishes are small plants which don’t take up much room, which makes them great for growing in pots and containers.
- Radishes need at least 6 hours of sunshine a day, so sow your radish seeds in a sunny spot.
- The quicker radishes grow, the more tender and sweet they is, so it’s important to feed radish plants every week with a fast acting liquid fertiliser like Yates Thrive Liquid All Purpose, which helps radishes grow healthy leaves and crunchy roots.
- Radishes also like to be kept moist, so keep them well watered, especially on warm days.
Companion Planting
- Radishes are great to sow with carrots. The radish seeds germinate first and help make the soil softer for carrots. Radishes are quick growing so you can start picking the radishes while you wait for the carrots to grow.
Problems to look out for
- Snails and slugs love eating radish seedlings! Protect the seedlings by scattering a few Yates Blitzem Snail and Slug Pellets around the garden bed (get a grown up to do this for you).
- Caterpillars and aphids also like to eat radishes (and can leave you with nothing!). If you start to see holes in leaves (from caterpillars) or the leaves curling up (could be aphids) give the plants a spray every 7 – 14 days with Yates Pyrethrum Insect Pest Gun. Make sure you get a grown up to do this for you!
Harvesting tips
- You can pick a few of the radish leaves for salads before the round red roots are ready.
- Radishes can be picked when they’re quite small up to when they are a few centimetres across. The earlier they are picked, the more sweet and tender they are, so don’t leave them in the ground for too long.
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