All about red radish

Radish is an unusually useful garden culture, capable of delighting its connoisseurs not only with its taste, but also with its beautiful appearance. Red radish looks especially bright against the background of others. It is not difficult to grow and care for it if you know the main features.

Red roots are one of the varieties of sowing radish. The history of cultivation of this vegetable has more than one thousand years - that is why now we have a large number of varieties with different skin and pulp colors. Thus, you can find root vegetables of all shades of red on the outside, but white on the inside or reddish flesh under the white or pink skin. But usually, red means a radish that has such a color on the outside.

Like black and green, red radish has a tart peppery taste and is good for the body. But in ready-made dishes - salads, soups and vegetable side dishes - it looks much more attractive.

Red radish can be grown in two ways.

• Outdoors. Radish grows quite successfully throughout the continent - from Asia to Europe. In central Russia, it can be planted in the middle of spring, collecting two crops per season. For some regions of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, the dates of planting and harvesting are shifted in accordance with the climate.
• In heated greenhouses, not focusing on the season.

For storage, it is better to choose a mid-season radish or late varieties that are harvested in the fall. The early one can be collected and eaten in the middle of summer, but it is stored worse. In two-year-old varieties, in the first season, the tops first develop well and only then the root part. And flowering and seeds can only be expected next year.

Before purchasing a red radish, you need to find the right variety. In this case, it is necessary to focus on several parameters: the timing of planting and ripening, the size and shape of the fruits, keeping quality. In addition, you can refer to the recommendations on thematic sites or forums.

The most common shape of the radish is round. The following varieties deserve attention here.

• "Celestial Empire"... Chinese radish with an early ripening period (50-60 days), a rich harvest of which can be harvested both in June and August.

• "Misato Red F1"... Medium early radish with round roots weighing 250-320 g. The pulp is tender and juicy with excellent taste.

• "Astronomer". A red round radish with a diameter of 9-13 cm and a weight of 250-550 g. It has a pleasant mild taste. Good for use in the autumn-winter period.

• "Lady". Another variety suitable for storage with beautiful red medium-sized fruits (on average 80-120 g).

• "Winter red". Medium late radish with root crops weighing 200-300 g. Ideal for storage.

• "Severyanka". The variety yields a fairly large radish - up to 400 g. Resistant to cool climates, must be planted at the end of June.

In addition to round, there are varieties of radish with elongated oval or spindle-shaped roots.

• "Red long summer". Super early radish (ripens in 40-45 days). In appearance, the roots fully correspond to the name, the pulp is white or slightly pinkish at the skin.

• "Glow"... A Chinese fruitful variety with elongated red-pink fruits. Suitable for planting in open and closed ground.

• "Okay". Refers to the Chinese variety.Allows you to get a quick harvest of oblong, even red root crops.

To get two harvests per season, planting work can begin as early as mid-April. At the same time, you need to remember about crop rotation - you should not plant radish after turnips, radishes, turnips and any cabbage (be it white cabbage, Peking cabbage or cauliflower). The soil should be light (preferably sandy, but loamy is also possible), neutral or slightly acidic.

The radish is planted in rows, in rows. When planning the distance between shoots, you need to take into account the average weight of root crops - usually this information is indicated on the package with seeds. The larger, the less frequent the plantings should be. For a large radish, it is necessary to retreat at least 30 cm, for an average one, 20 cm is enough. However, it should be borne in mind that some of the seeds may not resemble or will be damaged by pests. The embedding depth varies from 1.5 to 3 cm. Even in spring, planting should not be deepened too deep. Usually the work algorithm looks like this:

• the dug-up area is well loosened, shallow grooves are formed along the width of the bed, which need to be moistened;
• seeds are spread at a certain distance;
• then the grooves are sprinkled on top with pre-prepared earth.

It happens that the grown crop is too small, has an incomprehensible shape, cracks and damage. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to monitor the landings and carry out some manipulations in time.

• It is better to apply the main top dressing immediately before planting - humus is suitable for this (5 liters per 1 sq. M). And then, depending on the planting area, superphosphate, urea and potassium chloride are introduced into the soil.
• The radish needs moderate but regular watering. If the plantings are watered abundantly, but rarely, the fruits may crack.
• After the appearance of the first pair of planting leaves, it is necessary to thin out. And subsequently - weed regularly. In dense growth, root crops do not receive enough moisture and nutrition for full development, so the harvest may be poor.
• For a full air exchange and uniform distribution of moisture, the beds must be loosened. It should be borne in mind that long red roots can look out of the ground for a quarter - this is a variant of the norm.

Changes in the color of the tops and roots, drying out and damage are signs of disease. Copper sulfate can be used as a preventive measure. Young seedlings need protection in the form of insecticides.

Red radish is removed from the ground in any convenient way - you can pull it out if the ground is loose, or dig it up with a shovel. Then you need to remove all the soil from the root crop, cut the tops, leaving no more than 2 cm, and dry. The harvested radish is best kept for two weeks in a shaded room and sorted again to reject the damaged one.

There are several ways to store red radish:

• in boxes, placed in the basement or basement;
• in closed containers with sand, if there are rodents in the storage;
• in the compartments of the refrigerator intended for vegetables (no more than a month).