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How to pick radishes


Tips for Growing and Picking

Like tomatoes, radishes are a vegetable you have to grow yourself in order to enjoy their true flavor and knowing when to harvest radish is the key to that enjoyment. Grocery store radishes often taste quite spicy, but radishes grown in your garden and harvested at the correct time have a mild flavor and add a crisp crunch to salads and sandwiches. Members of the cabbage family (Brassicaceae), like broccoli and kale, these delicious globes of white flesh are also fun to grow. Here’s how to know when to pick radishes for peak flavor.

I grow many different varieties of radish in my garden, including some beautifully colored ones.

Why is knowing when to harvest radish important?

Unlike some other crops which can be harvested on a rolling basis as they ripen (green beans, peppers, and cucumbers, I’m talking about you!), radishes are a “once and done” crop. Each radish seed yields one radish root. If you miss the correct planting or harvesting time for radishes, your yield will be a whole lot of leaves and no delicious roots or over-ripe roots that are cracked, woody, and bitter. If you’ve tried growing radish before only for the plants to never develop their classic scarlet globe roots, you know the exact disappointment I’m talking about.

No matter which radish varieties you grow, success is all about the right timing. And I’m referring to both the timing of the planting and the timing of the harvest.

‘Cherry Belle’ is a classic red radish, though there are many other types you should grow, too.

Radish is a cool weather-loving crop. If you wait too long to plant radish seeds, the weather and soil will be too warm, and no roots will form. The leaves may be large and robust, but the root will look more like a rat tail root than a radish. Peak planting times are very early spring for late spring harvests and late summer for fall harvests.

When the planting is properly timed, figuring out when to harvest radish isn’t difficult, and there are several methods you can use to determine when the roots are ready to be pulled.

Radishes harvested at the peak of flavor are not woody or overly spicy. They are crisp and flavorful. These ‘Easter Egg’ radishes are a favorite of my family.

When to harvest radish based on the planting date

Since radish seeds are most often planted in the very early spring, 4-6 weeks before your last spring frost, they are among the earliest spring harvests for most gardeners. In my Pennsylvania garden, our last expected spring frost date is May 15th, so I sow seeds into the garden straight out of the seed packet starting around the end of March. Then I continue to sow more radish seeds every week through April and until the end of May when the weather really starts to warm. Making multiple sowings like this keeps my family in radishes for weeks instead of days, and it keeps us from being overwhelmed with too many radishes all at once.

Sow a row of radish seeds every week to have a continuous harvest of roots.

One of the easiest ways to know when to harvest radish is to keep track of your planting dates. Most radish varieties are ready to be pulled 30 to 45 days after sowing the seeds. If you remember when you planted the seeds, it’s easy to determine the best harvesting date. Ripe radishes will only hold in the soil for a week or two past their peak. If you keep them in the ground too long, the roots taste bitter and the texture is woody. Plus, the plants will go to flower (which is great for the pollinators but not so good for the salad plate).

As mentioned earlier, late summer plantings can also be made for fall harvest. I start sowing more radish seeds in late August through September. They’re ready to pick 30-45 days after sowing.

It’s easy to base the harvest date on the planting date for radishes. Most are mature between 30 and 50 days after sowing.

When to harvest radish by their size

Another great way to know when to harvest radish is by the diameter of their roots. Typically, the “shoulders” of the roots stick out above the surface of the soil. This is totally normal and even serves as a good indicator of the maturity of your radish plants.

When they are seedlings, the top of the root gradually starts to color up and thicken. For classic round radish varieties, like Cherry Belle and Easter Egg, when the root’s diameter reaches about 1-inch across, they are ready for harvest. For oblong varieties, like White Icicle and French Breakfast (my favorite!), their root girth at maturity isn’t as thick since the roots are longer than they are wide. For these varieties, I harvest when the shoulder of the root is the same diameter as my thumb. Here again, don’t wait too long to harvest or the roots will split or become woody.

The “shoulders” of radishes often stick out of the soil, making it easy to see how large they are.

When to harvest radish based on the variety

Using the root size as a harvest indicator goes hand in hand with using the variety type as a harvest indicator since the variety determines the eventual size of the root. Generally speaking, a spring variety has thinner skin and won’t hold in the ground as long, while fall-planted winter radishes have thicker skins and can stay in the garden until the ground freezes even if they are fully mature. Some varieties are even bred specifically for fall and winter growing. Most that are, have a slightly longer maturation period; more like 50 to 60 days. China Rose and Watermelon radish are two wonderful winter varieties that are great for fall planting and late-season harvests. Many Daikon radish types can even be planted throughout the summer for fall and winter harvest.

Freshly harvested French Breakfast radishes are bright and crisp.

What to do if your radish roots don’t form

If your radish plants don’t form roots at all, there could be a few different factors at play.

  1. You may have planted them too late. Remember, earlier is better than later. Aim for cold weather and soil that is cold but no longer frozen.
  2. Even moisture is another key to success with radishes. If the soil dries out when the plants are just seedlings, the water stress will result in minimal “bulbing” of the roots.
  3. You planted too closely. Radish roots need room to grow and fully form. Sow the seeds ½ to 1 inch apart. Or thin them to that spacing when they are small seedlings.
  4. Do not feed radish fertilizers that are high in nitrogen. Nitrogen makes big leaves, not big roots. Use a balanced organic fertilizer or one that’s slightly higher in phosphorous (the middle number on the label) for the best results.
  5. Mulch your radish plants to help stabilize soil temperatures and cut down on competition from weeds. Use shredded leaves, straw, or finished compost.
  6. Test your soil pH every 3 to 4 years to be sure it falls in the optimum range for radish growth. 6.5 is an ideal target pH as that’s when the most nutrients are available to fuel plant growth. A pH that’s too high or too low can bind certain nutrients into the soil so plants can’t access them. (Learn more about managing soil pH here).
Radish is best planted by directly sowing the seeds into the garden soil when the weather is still cool. The plants do not like to be transplanted.

How to harvest radish roots

Aside from knowing when to harvest radish, it’s important to know how to harvest them. Round radishes are incredibly easy to harvest. They are shallow-rooted and a simple tug on the leaves is enough to uproot them. Oblong, oval, or deep-rooted radish types, like daikons, are a little more challenging. Use a trowel or garden fork to gently pry them out of the soil. Some of them can grow quite deep, so you’ll need to dig carefully.

Harvesting radishes is easy. Take a firm grasp of the foliage and pull up. Deep-rooted varieties may require a digging fork or trowel.

More tips for growing radish

Flea beetles are a common pest of radish plants. Thankfully the damage they cause is mostly aesthetic.

I hope you’ll enjoy cultivating your own homegrown roots with these tips on when to harvest radish and the accompanying info on how to time the plantings. They’ll become a fast favorite for both their flavor and their ease of growth.

Radishes make a great crop for containers. They don’t need a deep pot and thrive in potting soil mixed with compost.

Here are more articles on when to harvest various crops:

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3 Signs That Your Radishes Are Ready to Be Harvested from the Garden • Gardenary

Published October 26, 2022 by Nicole Burke

Filed Under:

radishes

when to harvest

harvest

How

Can You Tell When Radishes Are Ready?

I like my radishes a little bit spicy and 100% crisp. The problem is, since they’re growing underground, how can you tell when they’ve grown to perfection? 

My first couple of seasons growing radishes, I was nervous if anything was happening under the surface at all. My plants produced lots of lush green leaves above ground, but when I harvested them, I was disappointed by the tap root size. Over the years, I’ve learned three signs to look for to harvest perfect, salad-ready radishes. 

You're within the window of the time guideline on your radish seed packet

I know, this one seems obvious, but how many of us have tried to assemble a piece of furniture without reading the directions? I may ignore the spacing suggestions on the backs of those little seed packs, but I’ve found that their time-to-harvest estimates are usually pretty accurate, plus or minus 10 days or so, especially when the weather has been optimal.   

Let's say you're planting your first round of French breakfast radishes in early March. You'll come out about seven to ten days later to thin radish seedlings to give your top plants adequate space to grow their tap roots. You'll return in early April, or after about 30 days from planting (as the packet most likely recommends), to check on their growth.

Different types of radishes have different grow times, so be sure to check your packet. 

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The radish greens above the soil have grown to be 6 to 8 inches tall

It’s true for most plants that the root growth and the shoot growth imitate one another when it comes to pacing. As above, so below, so to speak. If you don't see a lot of green growth above the soil line, then there’s probably not much happening to your little radish root below either. On the other hand, if one shoot has grown significantly taller than its neighbors, the radish attached to it will probably be just a little too big. 

For French breakfast radishes, look for greens that are about six to eight inches tall. 

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The radish passes the shoulder test

The shoulder of a radish is the part that pushes up against the topsoil, the part that breaks through when you give the shoots overhead a good tug. Use your finger to sweep around the base of the greens a bit to see if you can feel the shoulders. If you don’t feel anything, the radish probably needs more time to develop, so just push the soil back in place to give the teenage radish more privacy.  

Sometimes, the radishes show you they’re ready to harvest by popping their shoulders above ground to say hi. They’re not likely to continue growing much once they’re bursting out of the ground, so that makes the decision to pull or not to pull really easy! 

What happens if you leave a radish in the soil too long?

When radishes are near their time to harvest, it’s really important to watch them. If you harvest them too late, they can become starchy. I wanted to grow huge radishes for a photoshoot one year; they may have looked camera-ready, but they ended up tasting awful. Here's how to salvage your radishes if you leave them in the soil too long. 

What can you plant after you've harvested your radishes?

Once you pull up your first batch of perfect radishes, you might be wondering what to do with that empty space in your garden. After all, the last thing you want to do is leave soil bare, right?

If you know that you're still going to have the right temperature for radishes for at least 30 more days, you can always plant a second round. Just add a handful of compost and sow more radish seeds in the areas you've just harvested your first round from. That way, you can keep enjoying radishes through the rest of your growing season! 

To me, that’s the beauty of a kitchen garden: you can keep coming back and planting more, growing more, so that there's always something to harvest.

If, however, you expect the weather to change soon, you can plant something else in that spot to prepare for the upcoming growing season. I recommend going with something from a different family, so you could, for example, grow bush beans to hang over the side of your raised garden bed, or you could add some basil as soon as you're frost-free. 

Learn the step by step to plant, set up, and grow your own organic salad garden and enjoy fresh greens at least six months each year.

Enjoy your perfect homegrown radishes!

I hope this guide has you harvesting crisp radishes of all different shapes and sizes in no time! 

For more tips on growing perfect French breakfast radishes, read my full growing suggestions. If you'd like to save your own radish seeds for next season, here's how to harvest and store seeds. 

Don’t forget: you can also eat the radish greens. That means radishes are double your money!

Happy growing, my friends. 

Radishes: which one to choose? | Professional seeds "Gavrish"

Most producers grow radishes on the plot as a precursor of the main crop.

Growers have mixed opinions on whether to plant varieties or hybrids. If radishes are grown I in protected ground or in a small area, as a rule, hybrids are used, since they sprout evenly, ripen together, produce marketable and morphologically uniform roots. This allows you to calculate the timing and volume of product sales, free up the sown area for the main crop. Many prefer varieties, as their seeds are cheaper. Moreover, now there are many good radish varieties on the market with a complex of economically useful features and properties that meet the requirements of the manufacturer.

Round red is the most popular variety. The bulk of F1 hybrids are from this group. In some farms, other varieties are also grown: pink-red with a white tip (RBC, Belokrayka), white round (Mokhovsky, Snezhok), etc.

companies. The evaluation results are presented in the table.

Sowing on April 26 in a film unheated greenhouse in four repetitions. Standing density 125 plants/m 2 .

Choosing a radish variety

It should be noted that radish yield is not a determining factor in choosing a variety. In addition to high yields, its hybrids should have roots that are uniform in shape and color with juicy, void-free pulp, a thin root, a small compact rosette, resistant to bolting. Products must be transportable and sufficiently stable.

Radish sowing dates - as early as possible

In some farms, especially on large areas, sow in several stages (with subsequent staged harvesting) using precision seeders. On small areas - with the help of seeders of various modifications or manually, having previously cut the grooves. According to personal experience, three film greenhouses of 500 m 2 can be sown manually during the working day by a team of 6 people.

From the experience of the farmer P.M. Vorobyov (Belarus, Vitebsk region):

“I successfully grow and sell onions for greens, dill, parsley and other greens. I decided to try growing radishes as an addition to green crops. To do this, I picked up a small area (about 30 acres) of open ground, which, by coincidence, had been fallow for 2 years and was not processed. Before winter, he plowed, in the spring he carried out cultivation with harrowing. I bought varietal seeds, sowed with a seeder in a continuous method, like cereals. Radishes sprouted together, evenly, but together with a carpet of weeds. I didn’t waste time on weeding, I plowed it, I still managed to grow early potatoes on this site. ”

The vegetable grower's mistake is that in a plot that is heavily infested with weeds, one cannot sow immediately. You need to wait until the weeds germinate, close them up or treat them with a continuous herbicide. And then sow.

Radish irrigation schedule

As soon as all radishes are planted top irrigation is carried out. This will slightly compact the soil for better contact with the seeds and provide them with moisture, so that shoots will appear quickly and be uniform. The soil must not dry out.

From personal experience, lawn sprinklers have been successfully used to irrigate radish crops in a 500 m film unheated greenhouse 2 - cheaply and effectively.

Harvesting radishes

Harvesting begins with the onset of the marketable phase in radishes. According to the current GOST dated December 17, 2013 No. 55907-2013 "Fresh radish", the root diameter is at least 15 mm. Despite the fact that combine harvesters are currently used, manual collection is also widely practiced. Immediately after harvesting, root crops should be quickly cooled in running cold water.

This will increase their shelf life up to 2 weeks. At the same time, the roots are washed. According to personal experience, a team of 5 people during the working day is able to clean, wash with cooling and pack in containers a crop of root crops of radish by weight from an area of ​​500 m 2 .

Anatoly Tsiunel, junior researcher, Gavrish Company

Crispy season. How to choose a radish and what to cook from it? | Food and drinks | Kitchen

Maria Tikhmeneva

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

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/ NataliSel / Shutterstock.com

Radish is the earliest vegetable that appears in our gardens. In the middle lane in the open ground, the radish will grow by the beginning of June, and if you plant it in a greenhouse, then even earlier.

Radish is not only a delicious crunchy vegetable, but also a very healthy product. It has an antiseptic effect, improves digestion, increases appetite and has a mild laxative effect. Therefore, radishes can help to lose weight, because with a low calorie content, it contains a very large amount of protein, and also fiber, which helps to remove harmful cholesterol from the body.

There is a lot of vitamin C in radishes, especially in tubers that have pinkish flesh, the vegetable also contains B vitamins, vitamin PP and minerals: sodium, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and most of all - iron. But it is contraindicated in people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as with problems of the liver and kidneys.

Radishes have a pleasant, refreshing, bitter taste, excellent in salads and cold summer dishes.

“Radish is an amazing early vegetable, bright, juicy, crunchy. Always buy radishes with tops, - advises Artem Khizhnyakov, chef of the True Cost restaurant. - To choose a delicious radish on the market, you need to pay attention to the tops, it must be lush and not withered, the fruits of the radish must be dense, clean, without inclusions. It is better to take medium-sized fruits.

Leaves can also be used. Rinse it well, let it dry and fry a little in butter - you will get a great addition to any salad. It is better not to subject the radish itself to heat treatment, but to use it fresh in dishes.

Salad with radishes and leaves

Photo: Shutterstock.com

Recipe by Artem Khizhnyakov, chef at True Cost

Step 1. Wash and cut the vegetables as you like, put in a bowl, salt and pepper. Add lemon juice and chopped herbs.

Step 2. Rinse, dry and tear the radish tops.

Step 3. Fry the tops in butter in a hot frying pan for no more than 10 seconds.

Step 4. Add to the bowl with vegetables, add sour cream and mix well.

Vegetable Crudo

Photo: BURO TSUM Restaurant

Recipe by Vladimir Chistyakov, Chef of Buro TSUM Restaurant

For the miso mayo sauce :

Step 1. For the sauce, mix all the ingredients with a blender.

Step 2. Wash all vegetables, peel carrots.

Step 3. Dry the greens, separate the broccoli and cabbage into florets.

Step 4. Put the vegetables on a dish, you can put ice on the bottom.

Step 5. Pour the sauce into a gravy boat, serve with vegetables.

Grilled zucchini, avocado and radish salad

Photo: Robert Burns Pub

Recipe by Andrey Shashkov, Chef of Robert Burns Pub

Step 1. Cut the zucchini into cubes and fry in a frying pan until cooked.

Step 2. Slice the radish and dice the avocado.

Step 3. Mix vegetables and season with mayonnaise.

Step 4. Put the salad on a plate, garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.

Salted radish tartare

Photo: SimpleWine&Kitchen Wine Bar

Recipe by Nikita Nozhkin, chef at SimpleWine&Kitchen

For salted radish (for 1 serving - 20 g) :

For pickled daikon (per serving - 15 g) :

For sibulet emulsion (1 serving - 25 g) :

Step 1.

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