Slugs and Salal: Veggies

Radishes

In many ways the radish is a superb choice for launching the outdoor seeding season. Radishes can be planted outdoors in well-drained soils in March. It's among the fastest of all edibles from seed to table. Given a fairly warm, sunny spot and a loose, well-drained soil radish seeds sprout in less than a week and the commonly grown varieties are ready to harvest within a month.

Its speedy growth also makes the radish an ideal vehicle for introducing children to the thrill of growing their own good things to eat (see "Kids' Corner," below). And the usual round, fast-growing radishes are fine for container culture.

Nouvelle Cuisine

The radish is a more useful vegetable than perhaps many gardening cooks realize. We're all familiar with red radishes sliced or chopped into salads, eaten whole dipped in salt, or carved into radish flowers. But the tender young tops are also tangy additions to spring salads and stir-fries. And they're delicious steamed. If a few plants are left to flower and go to seed, the young green seed pods are a crunchy, peppery treat.

More varieties than you'd think

There are more kinds of radishes than some home gardeners may be aware of. Even among the familiar short season radishes that are grown mainly in the cool weather of spring there is much variety. Most commonly grown are round red types such as the popular Cherry Belle. Snow Belle is a mild, all-white version. Sparkler is bright red on top and white at the base. Easter Egg is a mix of red, purple, and white radishes.

Not all short season radishes are round. Some have elongated roots. An example is French Breakfast, a slender, mild-flavored variety about five cm (two inches) long in dark rose with a white tip. White Icicle is a tapered 10-cm (four inches) long all-white root.

Then there are the winter radishes, or long season types. Sown in July, they are harvested during fall and winter. Among these are German Beer, also called Munich Bier, a large white radish 15 cm (six inches) long. Round Black Spanish has crisp, medium-hot white flesh. Chinese White is carrot shaped and if left to grow will reach a length of 60 cm (24 in). Chinese Rose is long and rose-colored.

In between the short and long season radishes are midseason Oriental daikons for sowing in late spring to early summer and harvesting midsummer to fall. These ones resist bolting to seed during warm summer weather. Summer Cross is a sweet white radish that grows about 30 cm (12 in) long.

Growing successful radish crops

The keys to growing plump, juicy radishes are a humus-rich soil, steady supplies of moisture, and adequate spacing -- conditions which ensure rapid and continuous growth. Thin radishes while the seedlings are tiny. Plants left growing very close together will produce abundant foliage but small roots. Midseason radishes need spacing at least 7.5 cm (three inches) apart and the larger winter radishes need a 10 to 20 cm (four to eight inch) spacing.

Short season spring radishes will be most crispy and flavorful when harvested young, at under 2.5 cm (one inch) in diameter. Trim the leaves off close to the roots and refrigerate extras for two to three weeks. Several small seedings made 10 days apart beginning early in spring will give a continuous extended harvest of short season radishes.

Kids' Corner

If there are children in your household consider marking the official beginning of spring with a family planting of early round radishes in a shallow bowl-type planter. They're available in terra-cotta lookalike plastic at garden centres. Check that the planter's drainage holes are unplugged and fill it with a ready-made all-purpose planting mix fortified with a little sterilized soil.

For instant color set a few small pansy transplants around the pot's rim and water them in well. Scatter radish seed thinly in the middle of the container and cover the seed with about six mm (one-quarter inch) of the soil mix. Set the bowl out on a patio, deck or balcony, close to the house or apartment wall to begin with. When the radish seeds sprout move the planter out into the sunshine.

As the spring weather warms, move the planter into increasingly cooler locations. As radishes are pulled, add a little fertilizer and fresh soil and reseed. Replace the pansies with trailing lobelia in late spring, with perhaps a dwarf cherry tomato plant such as Yellow Canary or Red Robin in the middle. Set the planter on a table to enjoy the bright tomatoes and tumbling flowers.