The widespread cultivation of such an ancient crop as radish is justified by its positive characteristics and benefits. Long-lasting root vegetables 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 harvest this vegetable on any soil, under film, spunbond or in open ground.
Types and varieties
Basic types of radish:
- Japanese - daikon. It has the softest and most delicate taste.
- Chinese - lobo.The taste is soft, with bitterness.
- European. It has a rich, bitter taste.
Popular varieties of radish:
- Winter long black. Elongated black root vegetables with white, juicy, crispy flesh. Retain useful characteristics for a long period.
- Round black. Mid-season, with high taste and medicinal properties. White juicy pulp with a bright, pungent taste.
- Winter white. The pulp has a dense structure, medium-spicy. Retains its presentation for a long time.
- Margelanskaya. Green fruits with white flesh of a greenish tint, with a slightly pungent taste. Easy variety.
- Mayskaya. Early, the flesh is not prone to darkening, tender, semi-sharp.
- Delicacy. Early ripening, with an elongated, oval root crop with slightly pungent pulp.
- Odessa. Summer. The fruit is smooth, flat-round, white with a green head. Semi-sharp taste. Prone to cracking.
- Ladushka. An early ripening variety that produces a conical red root crop. The delicate white flesh near the peel is colored pink.
- Sultan. Medium early. Long, white, conical fruit with white, tender flesh.
Seed preparation
High-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 radishes be planted?
The yield of this vegetable crop largely depends on compliance with sowing dates. It is important to first decide why you decided to plant radishes - for spring-summer use or for storing for long-term storage.A prerequisite is a short daylight hours, which protects plants from bolting and throwing out flower stalks, as a result of which the fruits become unsuitable for food.
Different varieties need to be sown at different times. Summer: from April 10 to April 25, winter: from June 15 to July 10. Early varieties that produce small root crops with juicy, mildly pungent pulp are sown already in March. This 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 radishes are planted from the end of June to the first ten days of July.
Soil preparation
Agricultural technology for growing radishes allows sowing on any soil. Particularly juicy root vegetables, with 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 the fall: the ridges need to be dug quite deeply, with the addition of compost or humus at the rate of 6-8 kg per square meter of planting. In the spring, a mixture of urea and potassium chloride, taken at 20 g and 30 g of superphosphate per square meter, is used as a fertilizer.
Landing
In open ground, radishes are 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 radishes, the spacing between furrows is maintained at 15–20 cm. Late-ripening varieties can be grown on furrows with a distance of 25–30 cm.
Rules for caring for radishes
Thinning
Thinning is a mandatory procedure, because thickening of crops increases the risk of flower stalks, deformation and hardening of fruits. 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 to a distance of 12–15 cm, for winter varieties - 20 cm.
Watering
Regular watering relieves fruits from sagging, excessive bitterness and voids. One square meter of radish crops require 10–15 liters of water. The need for moisture increases as the fruits form and fill. If overwatered, root vegetables become watery. When cultivating radishes, soil moisture should be maintained within 75–80%.
Top dressing
During the growing season, radish requires feeding twice a day with an interval of 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 organic matter, 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 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 color of leaves.
- Cruciferous flea beetles. Their appearance is indicated by pitted leaves. Young shoots can be completely destroyed.
Common diseases of radish: clubroot, fomoz, black leg, black mold, downy mildew and vascular bacteriosis. The cause of such diseases is considered to be waterlogging.
Prevention and control of pests and diseases:
- Implementation of agrotechnical practices. Maintaining crop rotation to improve soil health. Planting radishes in the same place is possible after 3–4 years.
- Neutralization of acidic soils.
- Deep autumn plowing of the site. Regular loosening of rows.
- Compliance with sowing dates, taking into account the ripening period. Fertilizer and other measures aimed at accelerating plant development.
- Timely weeding of weeds.
- Manual collection of eggs, larvae and young insect pests.
- Timely cleaning and digging of the site, destruction of plant debris.
Harvesting and storage
Early radishes are harvested as the root crops grow. Winter radishes should be harvested before frost begins. Before storing, the leaves are cut off, leaving a stem 1 cm tall. The roots are not touched. The soil from the root crops is thoroughly shaken off.
After drying, the radishes are lowered into dry basements and cellars maintaining an air temperature of 0–1 ⁰С and a humidity not exceeding 90%.
Storing root vegetables is shown in untied plastic bags or boxes with two or three layers.
