Growing your own vegetables is a hobby that many people enjoy. The only question is what will you plant? If you want to try growing something a little different, try planting some radishes.
How is Growing a Radish Different?
Radishes are different from many crops because they grow in the ground. Radishes are basically just vegetables with big juicy roots. They will sprout leaves like your other garden plants, but the vegetable part of the radish will grow in the dirt.
Soil Type
Radishes thrive in most types of soil; however, sandy soils do seem to work best. Be sure that you break up your soil with a till or a similar tool. This makes it easier for the radish to penetrate the soil, and it also helps with water drainage.
Temperature and Sun
Radishes require rather warm temperatures(low eighties to mid nineties) in order to produce healthy plants. If it freezes, then your radishes could die. Generally, plant your radishes in the latter part of March through early October. As for the sun, radishes prefer full sun rather than shade.
Planting
Radishes usually have small seeds. To plant your radish seeds, simply use your fingers to create an indentation in the soil. How deep you plant your radish seeds will depend on the type of seeds that you're attempting to grow.
If it's large radishes, then you should dig out a trench with your fingers that's about five centimeters deep. For smaller radishes, make your trench around two centimeters in depth.
After you've decided how deep you want to plant your radishes, simply sprinkle your radish seeds into the trench that you have created. When your radishes start to produce green stalks then you'll need to start pruning them. The radishes that you don't prune will then have more space to grow and develop into mature plants.
Pests
Even though your radish is growing under the earth for the most part, you should still attempt to keep it as pest free as possible. Ants and other insects can still eat away at the green leaves that the radish produces.
And gophers would love to eat your radishes as well. So be sure to keep some pesticides handy for the insects. If you're really worried about gophers then you can just grow your radishes in a pot. Just make sure that your pot is at least six inches deep.
Radishes can be a fun and unique type of vegetable to grow. Just make sure that you understand the basics and then plant away.
