Radishes are the easiest vegetable I’ve grown, but there are some close ones. Potatoes are pretty easy as well, but Radishes win because they’re easy in every category. Peas should also get an honorable mention here.
Easy to Plant
Radishes are super easy to plant. Plant one seed per hole, one half inch deep, with an inch between. You direct sow outdoors once the risk of frost has passed. They’re cold tolerant, so if we get a late frost, they’ll likely survive just fine.
Once they sprout, you can thin them to one every two inches so they don’t fight with each other.
Radishes have an exceptionally high germination rate, so don’t be surprised if 100% of your seeds sprout.
Two Seasons
In our neck of the woods, we get two seasons for growing radishes. One early Spring and one late Fall. However, because of how fast they grow, you can do successive planting and realistically end up with 4 seasons.
Radishes are Quick
Radishes are ready to harvest in three to five weeks. That’s pretty quick for vegetables. You know they’re ready when you can see the actual radish poking out of the soil and you have about an inch diameter of exposed radish bulb. Hopefully you’ve grown enough that you can also pick a test one and see where it’s at.
Easy Harvest
One of the easiest things to harvest ever. They don’t hold on tight to the dirt around them, so you just pluck them out of the ground when they’re ready. Then you get a fun bundle of radishes.
Low Profile
On average, radish plants grow to about 12-18 inches tall, and because they have barely any root structure, you can plant them 1-2 inches apart. Because of this, you can plant quite a few in a small area.
Great Companion Plant
Radishes draw pests away from other plants, so they work great as companion plants for squash, pumpkins, watermelon, peppers, and leafy greens. The down side is that you’re sacrificing these particular radishes to the pests.
They also take up very little space vertically and horizontally. Therefore, they don’t interfere with other plants’ sun or root needs.
Seeds are Long Lasting
Radish seeds are one of the longer lasting seeds, typically lasting five years. The longer you keep seeds, the lower the germination rate, but radishes tend to do well even as old as five years.
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