Properly growing radishes to get a good harvest: simple tips
Radish is a versatile vegetable that can be grown both at home on the windowsill and in the garden. Certainly, it's better to grow it in the garden, because you won't get a bountiful harvest on the windowsill.
It's not difficult to grow radishes properly, but in order to get a good harvest, you should follow a few garden life hacks. We'll tell you what they are below.
Radishes are sown outdoors from late April to September. The optimum temperature for planting seeds in the ground is 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
It grows well both on flat surfaces and in small lowlands. The plant grows well on neutral (slightly acidic) soil, which should be fertilised with last year's compost, ash, and nitrogen fertiliser.
Radish loves light, but it is worth considering that with long daylight hours it does not form root crops, but begins to sprout leaves. So, as soon as the radish sprouts, you should cover its sprouts with an opaque film from lunchtime until evening.
The plants should preferably be exposed to light for 10-12 hours. If the daylight hours last 13-14 hours and the air temperature reaches 25 degrees, then later radish varieties do not form a root crop but bloom. Such plants are covered with dark non-woven material so that they are exposed to light for no more than 10 hours a day.
Planting radishes - the seeds should be soaked for a day, placed in cheesecloth moistened with chamomile infusion or liquid humic fertiliser.
Read also: Things to do in the garden in March
When sowing seeds, make the distance between future sprouts 5-7cm and between rows up to 12cm. The seeds should be buried 1-2cm into the ground and the soil should be lightly tamped on top.
After a week, the sprouted seeds should be thinned out by removing the weak ones and leaving 2-3 strong sprouts, and after another week, only the strongest sprouts should be left.
By the way, the best place in the garden to germinate radishes is where cucumbers, aubergines, peppers, or tomatoes used to grow. Do not plant in places where root crops used to grow.
The soil in which the radish grows must be constantly moist, otherwise the fruit will be bitter and crack.
Do not apply manure to the soil when growing radishes. In general, any nitrogen fertiliser can contribute to the formation of cavities in the middle of the root crop.
Recall that in spring, the sowing season begins, nature comes to life, and insects return with it. Some of them, such as ants, can harm your plants, so you need to fight them. Read how to do this in our article.
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