Growing radish: how and when to plant seeds in open ground

The widespread cultivation of such an ancient culture as radish is justified by its positive characteristics and benefits. Lean root crops enrich the human body with vitamins, stimulate digestive processes, and help heal the gallbladder and liver. Many dishes can be prepared from radish, and it is not difficult to get a crop of this vegetable on any soil, under film, spunbond or in open ground.

Types and varieties

Main types of radish:

• Japanese - daikon. It has the softest and most delicate taste.
• Chinese - lobo. The taste is soft, bitter.
• European. Has a rich, bitter taste.

Popular radish varieties:

• Winter long black. Elongated black roots with white, juicy, crispy flesh. Retain useful characteristics for a long period.
• Round black. Mid-season, with high taste and medicinal properties. White juicy flesh with a bright, pungent taste.
• Winter white. The pulp is dense structure, medium sharp. Long time keeps a trade dress.
• Margelan. Green fruits with white flesh of a greenish tint, which has a slightly spicy taste. A light variety.
• Mayskaya. Early, the flesh is not prone to browning, tender, semi-sharp.
• Delicacy. Early ripe, with an elongated, oval root crop with slightly sharp flesh.
• Odesskaya. Summer. The fruit is smooth, flat-round, white with a green head. Semi-sharp taste. Prone to cracking.
• Okay. An early ripe variety that forms a conical root crop of red color. Delicate white flesh near the peel is colored pink.
• Sultan. Mid-early. Long, white, conical fruit with white tender flesh.

Seed preparation

Quality specimens are selected from the seed material, which are recommended to be disinfected in a manganese solution. After half an hour, the seeds are washed with water and laid out on a damp cloth. Sowing is carried out when the seeds swell and begin to hatch.

When can I plant a radish

The yield of this vegetable crop largely depends on the observance of sowing dates. It is important to first decide why you decided to plant a radish - for spring-summer use or for long-term storage.A prerequisite is a short daylight hours, which protects plants from shooting, ejection of peduncles, as a result of which the fruits become unsuitable for food.

Different varieties need to be sown at different times. Summer: from 10 to 25 April, winter: from 15 June to 10 July. Early varieties that produce small root crops with juicy, slightly sharp pulp are sown in March. Such a radish reaches technical maturity in 45 days. Summer varieties ripen in 60 days, they are usually sown in late April - early May. Resistant to low temperatures. Mid-season winter varieties grown for long-term storage are ready on the 100th day. Timely harvesting is possible when planting radishes from the end of June to the first decade of July.

Soil preparation

Radish farming technology allows sowing on any soil. Especially juicy root crops, with a pulp of a dense structure, should be expected on sandy and loamy soils. Cultivation in light, sandy areas will require increased watering.

Soil preparation begins in autumn: the ridges need to be dug quite deep, with the introduction of compost or humus at the rate of 6-8 kg per square meter of plantings. In the spring, a mixture of urea and potassium chloride is used as a fertilizer, taken at 20 g and 30 g of superphosphate per square meter.

Landing

In the open field, radish is grown with seeds distributed in rows 1-2 cm deep, at a distance of 4-5 cm. This method involves thinning. Seeds that have swollen or hatched can be planted at intervals of 15 cm. When sowing early radish, the step between the grooves is maintained at 15-20 cm. Late-ripening varieties can be grown on grooves with a distance of 25-30 cm.

Rules for caring for radishes

Thinning

Thinning is a mandatory procedure, because the thickening of crops increases the risk of flower stalks, deformation and coarsening of the fruit.First, thinning is carried out after the formation of a pair of true leaves. Plants can be removed completely or pinched, leaving a distance of 8-10 cm. Then, the radish is thinned out in the phase of formation of 4-5 leaves at a distance of 12-15 cm, for winter varieties - 20 cm.

Irrigation

Regular watering relieves fruits from sagging, excessive bitterness and voids. One square meter of radish crops requires 10-15 liters of water. The need for moisture increases as the fruit develops and ripens. In case of overflow, the roots become watery. When cultivating radish, soil moisture should be maintained within 75-80%.

Feeding

During the growing season, the radish needs two feedings every 2-3 weeks. The first time - with the formation of 2-4 leaves.

This vegetable crop responds well to organic fertilizer in the form of a solution of fermented grass: a liter per 4-5 liters of water or mullein: a liter of slurry per bucket of water. In the absence of organics, ready-made fertilizers intended for vegetables are used: 20 g per bucket of water. For 3 square meters of planting, 10 liters of solution are used.

Protection from diseases and pests

Radish is the most susceptible to attack by insect pests, the most dangerous of which are:

• Cabbage fly. It feeds on the underground organs of plants, which, in case of severe damage, leads to the death of the plant. Sign of damage: bluish-purple leaf color.
• Cruciferous fleas. Their appearance is indicated by ulcerated leaves. Young shoots can be completely destroyed.

Common radish diseases: clubroot, phomosis, black leg, black mold, downy mildew and vascular bacteriosis. The cause of such diseases is waterlogged air.

Prevention and control of pests and diseases:

• Performance of agricultural practices. Compliance with crop rotation, contributing to the improvement of the soil. Planting radish in the same place is possible in 3-4 years.
• Neutralization of acidic soils.
• Deep autumn plowing of the site. Regular loosening of row spacing.
• Compliance with the timing of sowing, taking into account the ripening period. Fertilizer and other measures aimed at accelerating the development of plants.
• Timely weeding.
• Hand collection of eggs, larvae and young insect pests.
• Timely cleaning and digging of the site, destruction of plant residues.

Harvesting and storage

The early radish is harvested as the roots grow. The fruits of winter radish must be harvested before the onset of frost. Before laying in storage, the leaves are cut off, leaving a stem with 1 cm in height. The roots are not touched. The earth is carefully shaken off the root crops.

After drying, the radish is lowered into dry cellars and cellars with the air temperature maintained at 0-1 ⁰С and humidity not higher than 90%.

Storage of root crops is shown in untied plastic bags or boxes with two or three layers.

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