Grow Your Own Radishes
By Vanessa Richins
There’s a vegetable that’s perfect for getting your young kids started in gardening.
It also will go great with your salads and more.
What could it be?
Why, radishes of course.
It’s a great starter vegetable for kids because of the quick turnaround time. In less than a month, you’ll be able to pull out your mature radishes.
There’s two times of the year that are good for planting radishes, since they are a cool season crop. In the spring, start planting seeds as soon as the ground has thawed enough. Since they are so small, they are also a good candidate for container gardening. You can also plant another crop in the fall as the temperatures cool.
Mix some 1-2-1 ratio fertilizer into the soil before you plant them .25-.5″ deep. You will want to make sure they stay moist. Once the seedlings have appeared, thin them so that they are 1″ apart. Watch them carefully as it won’t be too long before they are ready to harvest. Pick them when they are less than 1″ in diameter for the best results. If they are left too long they will become quite spicy and woody. You can also eat the greens.
One possible problem is the root maggot. They will bore their way into the radish. If you’ve had a problem with this before, you will need to treat the soil with an insecticide before planting more radishes.
There are also winter radishes which can be stored. These will take longer to mature and will be larger than the familiar spring radishes.
How do you like to eat radishes?
August 25th, 2009 at 9:21 am
You wrote, “It’s a great starter vegetable for kids because of the quick turnaround time” and I could not agree more. This is how my dad got me started. Radishes grow very quickly, and when you can show kids the end result in a reasonable time frame they will get more interested.
Regards,
Mike the Gardener