How to grow them
Sow a short row every fortnight, thinly, 1cm deep. Use them to mark rows of slow crops such as parsnips: the radishes are up and eaten before the parsnips need the room.
Cabbage family
Radishes
Seed to plate in four weeks. The crop to sow with children, or between slower rows.
- Buy as
- Seed
- Space
- 3cm between plants, 15cm between rows
- Position
- Sun or light shade
- Rotation
- Cabbage family
- Difficulty
- Easy
The year
Sow outdoors
Harvest
When to pick
Pull as soon as they are big enough. They turn hot and woody within days.
What goes wrong
Problems, and what to do
Flea beetle
Small holes in the leaves. It rarely matters on radishes.
All leaf and no root
Sown too thickly or in shade. Thin them early.
Good neighbours: Parsnips, Peas, Lettuces.
Same family
More from cabbage family
CabbagesWith the right varieties you can cut a cabbage in every month of the year.
KaleThe toughest green on the plot. It stands through snow and feeds you in the hungry gap.
Broccoli (calabrese)The green broccoli of the supermarket, ready in about twelve weeks.
Purple sprouting broccoliIt takes nearly a year, and repays you with fresh greens when the plot has little else.
Brussels sproutsA long wait and a lot of space, for sprouts that taste nothing like the boiled ones of memory.
CauliflowersThe hardest of the family to grow well, and the most satisfying when you do.
SwedesA winter root that looks after itself. It is a brassica, so it goes in the cabbage bed.
TurnipsFast, and far better small. Pulled at golf-ball size they are sweet enough to eat raw.