Ravishing Radishes!

Radishes from the writer’s garden. Photos by Leslie Finical Halleck.

You may have noticed that I like to write about food. I love to grow it and I love to eat it. Lots of it! Here in Texas we’re blessed with a long, cool growing season. Our winter climate is perfect for growing salad greens, collards, cole crops and the like. Folks are always asking me what some “quick-turn” crops are that they can grow during cool months. I’d say that radishes are probably one of the fastest crops you can grow in your cool-season garden.

Radishes are easy for several reasons. You don’t need to start your radishes indoors; just direct seed them into the garden. Most varieties are mature and ready for harvest within 20 to 40 days from seeding, so you can seed many successions of crops through the cool season. Because they are small and mature so quickly, you can inter-crop and catch-crop your radishes. That means you can seed them in among other crops where you have space, or where your other crops are still small. No sense in letting bare soil go to waste!

Radishes can grow in partial shade, along with other greens, and they grow great in containers. Make sure you plant them in loose, well-drained soil so that the roots, which you will eat, can easily expand. If your soil is chunky or rocky, the roots will be misshapen. Put down a vegetable fertilizer before planting your seeds, and rake it into the soil. Make a furrow in your soil about ½ inch deep and plant your seeds in that furrow, about 1 inch apart. Cover the seeds and water lightly. You should see germination in about four to six days. You’ll need to thin your seedlings as they emerge – about 2 inches apart.

You can plant successions of radishes about seven to ten days apart. That will keep you in a steady supply of mature radishes. In Northern parts of the state, you can start seeding radishes in September and continue through mid-November. Then start seeding again in February and on through May. In Southern parts of the state, you can continue seeding radishes all winter and spring.

Be sure to harvest your radishes when the matured root is still tender. If you leave your radishes in the ground too long, they will scab over and become tough. When you harvest, cut off the leaves and put them in the compost pile.

Here is one of my favorite ways to eat radishes:

Edamame and Radish Salad

1 bag (16 ounces) frozen, shelled edamame (green soybeans)
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch radishes (8 ounces), cut in half and thinly sliced
1 cup loosely packed chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Enjoy!

About the author: Leslie Finical Halleck is a horticulturist and general manager for North Haven Gardens in Dallas, Texas.

Visit North Haven Gardens for a full choice of pansies, violas and bulbs. See www.nhg.com for details about upcoming programs.