Roots & tubers
Radish
The winter succession; short rows every 8 to 10 days.
- Outside
- Direct Sep to Mar, rows 8 to 10 days apart
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Little and often; a dry check turns them sharp
- Harvest
- Oct to Apr, pull small
Care
- Water
- Little and often keeps it moving; steady, unbroken growth is what keeps a radish mild and crisp, and a root that stalls in dry soil comes up sharp and woody. Winter rain does most of the work; water the dry spells between fronts, and keep fall seedbeds damp.
- Sow
- Direct sow a short row every 8 to 10 days, the state sheet's cadence, from September through March, a quarter inch deep and an inch apart, thinned at once to 2 inches. Up in a few days and pulled in 4 to 5 weeks; the winter rows are the county's November-January lists at work.
- Feed
- The lightest feeder in the bed: a shovel of compost in the row is more than enough, and no liquid at all. A month-long crop lives on what the soil already holds, and nitrogen near sowing grows lush tops over a stringy root.
- Ready
- Pull once the roots run marble to ping-pong size, 4 to 5 weeks from sowing; on time is the only time, and an old radish goes pithy and hollow. Slip a whole short row at once, then start the next; the winter rows keep the salad bowl in crunch.
- Trouble
- Bolted plants that never sized a root: a sowing that ran into the heat, so keep to the cool months. Split roots: a downpour on dry ground, so pull promptly ahead of the rain. Pithy, hollow roots: left too long; the succession cadence is the cure.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 1–3 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily in warm weather; a bag dries far faster than a bed, and a checked radish turns sharp and hollow.
- Sow
- The Texas container guide lists radish at 1 gallon and ideally suited; broadcast a thin scatter across the bag and thin to 2 inches. A fall bag succession is easier than the still-warm ground.
Radishes are the pace car of the winter garden here: a short row every 8 to 10 days from September through March keeps the salad bowl in crunch all winter.
Growing
The state sheet plants radish every 8 to 10 days and pulls in about 4 to 5 weeks, and the county's lists carry them from the September round through the winter months and onto the February sowing list. Sow short rows rather than all at once; each row bears for a couple of weeks before the next takes over. Summer sowings bolt and bite and are not worth the seed, which is why the whole season here runs from September to March. The white winter types take the cool months' full run when you want a bigger root.
Varieties
The state sheet names Champion, Cherry Belle, Early Scarlet and Early Scarlet Globe among the reds, and Chinese White Winter, Summer Cross and White Icicle among the whites; Travis County adds French Breakfast, Easter Egg, Watermelon radish and Miyashige daikon.
In the kitchen
Halved onto buttered bread with flaky salt; sliced thin into the winter salads the county's greens rows are built around; and pickled, since the escabeche jar takes radish as gladly as it takes jalapeno and carrot.