Radish is a juicy, aromatic, slightly spicy root vegetable. With a meager caloric content of 19 kcal / 100g, it contains a lot of useful substances: vitamins, minerals, trace elements, fiber, phytoncides, mustard oil, essential oils. Radish improves intestinal motility, lowers the level of bad cholesterol, activates metabolism, increases the elasticity of blood vessel walls, and its cultivation is possible even on a windowsill.
Radish, cut for salad, when exposed to oxygen, oxidizes and loses vitamins, so it is better to eat whole root vegetable. Is it possible to grow tasty and healthy radishes at home or in an apartment almost all year round?
Radish on the windowsill: is it possible to grow
This root vegetable very easy to plant and grow at home on a windowsill or on a balcony during the autumn-winter season. You just need to follow a few simple rules, and two to three weeks after planting the seeds, you can replenish your diet with juicy, crunchy radishes.
First you need to stock up on all the necessary materials: container for planting, ready-made soil composition or simply fertilized soil from the garden, seeds.
Determine a place for a home "garden". Let's make a reservation in advance, it should be sufficiently lit and warm before seed germination... When the seedlings begin to grow, the temperature must be changed, the radishes must be transferred to a cooler place.
The best radishes for growing at home
Seed preparation is perhaps the most important step. For growing on a windowsill, early early ripening varieties of radish, not too demanding on growing conditions, are best suited:
- grade "16 days" - the name speaks for itself, ripening takes place in 16 days, bright red fruits with tender juicy pulp, resistant to cracking and shooting;
- "Heat" - ripening period 18-20 days, smooth, round root crop of red-raspberry color, with white-pink dense, juicy pulp;
- "Presto" - ripens in 16 days, very juicy, does not crack, does not expel the shooter;
- "French breakfast" - ripening time 21-23 days, fruits are red-raspberry with a white tip, cylindrical roots 6-8 cm long (it is important to take into account the size of the radish for the selection of containers), excellent taste;
- "Champion" - ripening period is 18-25 days after germination, the root crop is large, slightly oval, resistant to shooting and the main diseases of radish.
Radish varieties have also proven themselves well Carmen, Celeste, Sachs, Ruby... You can simultaneously grow 2-3 varieties with different ripening periods, providing the table with fresh, healthy fruit for a long time.
Preparing for landing
Preparing for planting does not take long, but it includes several stages. Something needs to be taken care of in advance, other preparations are made just before landing.
Container
- Radishes can be grown in pre-prepared wooden crates with pallets... Their width should correspond to the width of the window sill, and their height should be about 15 cm. Fill up the earth no more than 2/3, leave a few centimeters for possible backfilling later.
- Plastic containers with drainage holes and a cell size of at least 5x5 cm.
- Plastic cups they are also suitable as containers if you make drainage holes in them yourself and install them on pallets.
The soil
To get a good harvest, you need to try to pick up good soil.
The simplest thing is to buy a ready-made mixture in the store, but you can also make a good fertile mixture of several components yourself:
- soil from a summer cottage or garden plot, humus 2-3 years old (radish does not like fresh humus), sand - all in equal quantities;
- earth (one bucket), a glass of ash, ½ crushed egg shell;
- 50% land, 50% peat.
Containers and cups should be filled with earth, leaving free 1-2 cm from the edge of the container.
To increase yields, faster growth of shoots, a little mineral fertilizers can be applied to the substrates. The packaging usually indicates the composition and amount that must be added to the soil for a certain type of vegetables and root crops.
Seeds
Having decided on the choice of the variety, you need to prepare the seeds. Put them on a plate or tray and inspect. All grains should be approximately the same size, brown, odorless mildew... Seeds that are too small, irregular, gray in color are rejected.
Before planting, it is very useful to soak healthy grains in a solution of potassium permanganate for a couple of hours - the radish will sprout better and hurt less.
Sowing radish
When everything is prepared for landing, the soil needs to be slightly moistened with water, a dive stick make indentations - one in each cell or cup, and in a box at a distance of 5x5 or 6x6 cm from each other, 1.5-2 cm deep.
In each of them, add one seed at a time (it is convenient to do it with tweezers). Fill the grooves with a substrate, moisten again with water (it is best to spray with a spray bottle) so that the soil is slightly compacted.
Then the container is covered with glass or cling film (polyethylene), and placed in a warm place with a temperature 18-20 degrees before emergence.
When shoots appear (after about 6-8 days, depending on the variety), the film is removed and the seedlings are transferred for 3-4 days to a cool place with t about 8 degrees for quenching... Then they return to a more comfortable place.
Care for the "bed on the windowsill"
First of all, we must remember that radishes do not like heat.
If possible, it is better to keep the plants on the balcony so that the temperature did not exceed 15 degrees or in a well-lit room, but away from batteries. If there is too much heat, the plant will not form properly - luxurious greenery without roots.
Lighting should be sufficient, it will be necessary to increase daylight hours with a lamp... With a long daylight hours, the radish will turn out to be juicy, with dense pulp.
The plant loves moisture, so it is impossible to overdry the soil. But it is not recommended to moisturize too much, it is better to water often, but little by little.
Top dressing is not necessaryif the soil composition is well matched. Radish develops and ripens very quickly, having time to take all the necessary substances from the soil.
In no more than 20 days, without much hassle, an ecologically clean harvest of delicious radishes rich in vitamins and useful minerals will grow on the balcony or windowsill. You will delight your family and surprise your friends with a fresh root vegetable on your table.