Growing Your Own Radish Seeds

The radish is a tart, crisp vegetable that tastes wonderful with cold summer salads. Its attractive dark pink and bright white coloring and hard texture make it ideal for decorating food too. Even more delicious are radishes you plant in your garden and eat fresh. Consider planting radish seeds to add to your spring and summer table. Radishes add texture, crunch, and nutrition to many dishes.

You will see that finding and planting radish seeds is easy to do. Look in almost any seed magazine and you will find it sells radish seeds. Garden supply stores and places that sell garden accessories may also sell vegetable seeds. Heirloom seed magazines have fascinating types of old-fashioned radish seeds.

Planting Radish Seed Varieties

The radish is another kind of “garden variety” vegetable seen frequently in salads and served with vegetable dip. You may not realize how many varieties of radishes there are: white icicle, long scarlet, French breakfast, and others.

Some radishes are round and small with a pointed tip. Others radishes are long and thin. Colors vary too. With all these varieties, radish seeds can become a gourmet part of your vegetable gardening.

According to the Iowa State Agronomy Department, radish crops have these characteristics: they produce a harvestable yield in a relatively short period of time but they need help competing with weeds. Some radish seeds may even produce plants within a week. For these reasons, the radish is often grown in educational plant labs for experimentation with different growing conditions.

For your gardening needs, learn your planting zones and check the growing conditions for the particular radish seeds you choose. In any case, your radish crop will probably be the first vegetable to make it to your table, as it is typically the first garden crop.

Radishes usually grow best in the cooler spring months and in partial shade. They can grow not only in garden beds but also in small containers, making them ideal for gardening with children.

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