Radish is the most precocious crop with a very rapid formation of root crops, which is why this vegetable can be first obtained in your greenhouse. In addition, this culture is quite unpretentious, so even beginner gardeners can successfully grow it.
Greenhouse for growing radishes
The best option for the speedy ripening of radishes is a stationary greenhouse, which is well lit and warmed by the sun. There is also a less attractive, but rather convenient option - a small greenhouse made of polycarbonate.
If radishes are grown in regions with cold winters, the greenhouse should be well heated. In this case, the crop can be planted directly in the soil, which will be heated by a water heating pipe laid underground or by a heating cable.
If the soil heating is not organized, planting is more expedient to carry out in a rack-mounted way, but even in this case the greenhouse should be heated. To do this, you can use electric heaters, infrared devices, gas equipment or stove heating.
In any case, to obtain a rich harvest of radishes with smooth and beautiful root crops in the greenhouse, the following conditions should be guaranteed:
- Optimum temperature. During the day, it should be kept within + 18 ... + 20 ° C, and at night - no more than + 10 ° C. The optimum soil temperature is at least + 11 ... 14 ° C. Only under such conditions, the plant will not stretch for several days during the formation of the leaf rosette.
- Acceptable humidity. In a greenhouse, it is worth providing an average humidity of 70%.
- Continuous lighting. During the day, the room must be lit for 8-12 hours. To maintain such conditions in the winter season or cloudy days, it is necessary to organize additional ceiling lighting plants. It should be borne in mind that in case of sufficient or excessive lighting (from 14 hours) the radish will go into the arrow.
Depending on the intensity of illumination, temperature and humidity, the growing season of the varieties will be determined. Under adverse conditions, the development and formation of root crops will be delayed. In addition, the plant can proceed to the formation of flower-bearing shoots and seeds, and ripened root crops will quickly lose their marketable qualities.
When to plant?
Radish seeds can be sown in protected ground immediately after the snow has melted and the night temperature is set to close to zero. Typically, such weather conditions are set in late March - early April. If you want to get an early harvest, radishes can be planted from mid-January, but it is important to ensure that at night the temperature is around 0 ° C, and during the day - up to + 15 ° C.
In a greenhouse or greenhouse, the first shoots will appear in about 3-5 days, which will depend on the stability of the temperature regime.
Among all vegetables, radishes have the shortest growing season, therefore, they can be grown in protected ground as a previous, crop or intermediate crop.
Variety selection and seed purchase
The choice of variety should be approached with all responsibility, since seeds intended for planting in open ground can shoot in greenhouse conditions. In this matter, a significant factor is the length of the growing season (from the appearance of the first seedlings to full ripeness).
For the greenhouse, you should choose early ripe varieties with a growing season of 22-25 days. You can also grow medium early varieties (25-30 days), but from medium late (35-40 days) and late (more than 40 days) - it is better to refuse.
For cultivation in a greenhouse or greenhouse, you should also choose varieties that are resistant to external influences. These include:
- Greenhouse. An early ripening variety of Russian selection with a marketable yield of 1.7 kg per 1 sq. Km. m. Root crops have a round-oval shape, a flat surface and a thin tip. The average weight of radishes is 25-28 g. Recommended for cultivation in sheltered soil in a spring greenhouse.
- Dawn. An early ripening variety whose fruits ripen on day 30 after sowing. Root crops have a rounded shape and dark red color, juicy and tender flesh, which does not bitter taste. The fruit mass is about 18-20 g. The variety is grown only in closed ground.
- Heat. An early ripening variety with a vegetation period of 18-27 days, which gives an early and rich harvest when grown in a greenhouse (up to 3.5 kg per 1 sq. M). Fruits in rounded root crops of red-raspberry color, smooth surface and weighing about 13-30 g.
- Sax. Early ripening variety with a growing season of 20-30 days. It has a high yield of 4 kg per 1 sq. Km. It tolerates drought and low temperatures. Root crops have a round shape, bright red color, juicy snow-white pulp and weight from 8 to 10 g.
- Early red. An early ripe variety of Russian breeders, which bears fruit with dark red round-shaped root crops and weighing 20-30 g. The yield is relatively small - up to 1.6 kg per 1 sq. Km. Resistant to early stalking. The variety was created for cultivation in winter greenhouses.
- Helro. Early ripening variety of Dutch breeding, which is intended for early spring and late autumn cultivation in greenhouses and greenhouses. Root crops have the correct rounded shape, bright color and weight up to 20-25 g. Productivity is good - 2.9-3.3 kg per 1 sq. Km. m
The listed early ripening hybrids are characterized by excellent qualitative and quantitative indicators of productivity.
After choosing a particular variety, you can go to the garden store to buy seeds. They should be healthy and medium fraction (from 2.5 to 2.8 mm). In the store you can buy planting material that is completely ready for planting, so it does not need to be processed independently.
In the next video, the gardener will tell you which varieties of radish to choose for growing in a greenhouse to get an excellent harvest:
Preparatory work
Before sowing seeds, if necessary, it is necessary to process the seed, as well as to properly prepare the soil. From the quality of the work carried out in the future, the period for the complete ripening of root crops and productivity will depend.
Seed preparation
Seed treatment is carried out before sowing in order to disinfect and further stimulate growth. It is carried out as follows:
- sift the seeds through a sieve that has cells about 2 mm in size to select the best planting material;
- soak the seeds in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for several hours to reduce the risk of developing diseases;
- soak the seeds for a day in a solution of wood ash (1 tsp per 100 ml of water) to stimulate the growth of seedlings, and for this purpose you can use other substances - Epin (2 drops per 100 ml of water, soak for 18 hours) or Potassium humate (per 100 ml of water - 20-25 drops, soak for 12 hours);
- dry the seeds on a paper towel after soaking.
Soil preparation
You need to grow radishes on light and loose soil with neutral acidity, otherwise the culture will hurt. Given this rule, you can prepare the following options for soil mixtures:
- field land (40%), humus from manure (60%);
- lowland peat (20%), humus from manure (40%), turf land (40%);
- turf land (40%), humus from manure (60%);
- turf land (50%), greenhouse-greenhouse land (50%).
Soil preparation is carried out in advance, in the fall. Assumes compliance with a number of rules:
- To make mineral fertilizers at the rate of 40 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium chloride per 1 sq. m plot.
- Additionally, add one bucket of compost per 1 sq. Km. m of land, if the soil needs organic matter or is depleted after the previous crop.
If enough organic matter was used in the greenhouse during the previous planting, it is not necessary to fertilize the soil before planting the radish.
- Dilute too heavy soil with sand.
- After fertilizing, dig the soil, level it, prepare ridges 1 m wide and leave until spring.
- If necessary, not later than 10-15 days before sowing the seeds, the acidity of the soil can be reduced by adding slaked lime, dolomite flour or ordinary wood ash to the soil.
- A few days before sowing, cover the ground with foil so that it warms up additionally.
For convenience, many gardeners prepare cassettes of the same depth, width and length for 5 cm each for planting radishes.
Planting seeds
Sowing of seeds is carried out in early spring, when the soil softens to a depth of 2-3 cm. The film needs to be removed, and after manual sowing. Planting should be uniform in order to further get rid of the need for thinning seedlings. At the same time, the seeds in the greenhouse should not be sown too densely, because even thinning will not help from such an error.
Landing should be done taking into account the following parameters:
- seed embedding depth - not more than 1 cm;
- distance between seeds - 2 cm;
- the distance between the rows is 6-8 cm;
- seed consumption - about 4-5 g per 1 square. m
These are optimal parameters, so that in the future it will be easier to take care of the landing.
Some gardeners prepare grooves with the help of a fang cutter, so that they turn out smooth and beautiful. However, in this case, it is quite difficult to maintain an equal distance between them, so in the future it is necessary to thin out.
In order not to encounter a similar problem, you can use a more convenient marker for marking the beds - a cardboard egg tray with 30 nests. You just need to push it into the ground to get the perfect hole for the seeds. In each of them, the soil will be almost compacted and covered with light unconsolidated soil.
Landing care
To get a full-fledged crop of root crops, seedlings will need to provide competent care in compliance with the following rules:
- Maintaining optimum temperature. During the germination period of seedlings, the temperature should be + 16 ... + 18 ° C. With the mass appearance of seedlings, the room must be cooled to + 6 ... + 8 ° C. This is the optimum temperature to prevent sprouting. It must be maintained for 3-4 days. Further, the temperature needs to be increased: in the daytime - up to + 15 ... + 20 ° C, and at night - up to + 8 ... + 10 ° C. It should be noted that radish is a cold-resistant crop, therefore it is not afraid of frost and can even withstand a drop in temperature at night to -5 ° C.
- Optimal lighting organization. An acceptable daylight for ripening root crops is up to 12 hours. In the summer season, the greenhouse should be covered with black or dark film so that daylight hours do not last longer than the specified time. Otherwise, flower stalks are formed, and you will not be able to get a full crop.
- Watering and airing. Radishes require frequent and regular watering. In hot weather, plants should be irrigated daily, and in cool or cloudy times every 2-3 days. Watering the seedlings should be at a depth of 10-15 cm. If the soil is allowed to dry, then the root crops will begin to coarse, and if they moisten sharply, they will crack. After watering, the room should be well ventilated, since at high humidity air radish can become infected with a black leg.
- Mulching. To reduce the evaporation of moisture and retain it in the soil, gardeners sprinkle soil with peat or humus. The optimal layer height is up to 1 cm.
- Thinning. If the seedlings are too thick, they must be thinned out. It is desirable that the plants are located at a distance of up to 2-3 cm. With excessive crowding or darkening, root crops stop in development and remain small. After thinning out the foliage, the plant lowers and takes a horizontal position, which eliminates the likelihood of arrows being released.
- Fertilizer application. The best fertilizer for radishes are nitrogen-containing fertilizers. The drug must be applied during irrigation at the rate of 20-30 g per 1 sq. m sown area. Fertilize the soil up to 2 times per season. If the soil for planting radishes was sufficiently fertilized, then during the growing season there is no need to fertilize it.
- Weeding and cultivation. As necessary, weed and loosen the aisles.
- Pest protection. To protect the planting from pests, the culture must be treated with a mixture of tobacco dust and ash in a ratio of 1: 1. This is a reliable and effective remedy against the cruciferous flea - the main pest of radish.
The phase of technical ripeness of root crops takes 1.5-2 weeks, after which a flower stalk is formed with a height of 60 to 130 cm. Flowering takes about 30-35 days. Depending on the variety, the flowers collected in the inflorescence-brush can be white, light pink or purple. The fruit is a non-expanding pod that has rounded oval black or brown seeds. They retain viability for 4-5 years.
How to properly care for a radish that grows in greenhouse conditions, says an experienced gardener in the following video:
Harvesting and storage
The crop grown in the greenhouse must be harvested in 2-3 doses, and the first harvest is carried out 1-1.5 months after sowing. The total yield, as a rule, is at least 1.5-2 kg per 1 sq. Km. m
Gardeners are advised not to procrastinate too much: to harvest medium-sized radishes when it becomes juicy and acquires the color characteristic of a particular variety.
A few hours before harvesting, the plant should be watered. For example, watering can be done in the morning, and in the daytime - to collect radishes. Further it needs to be processed correctly. If root vegetables are not immediately sent for sale, the leaves should be cut along with the tops. Then they need to be washed under cold water and dried slightly. Such a radish can be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks.
Experienced gardeners recommend a method that allows you to store the vegetable longer. To do this, prepare a wooden box, the bottom of which is covered with polyethylene. Put the radish in a container, lightly sprinkling it with a mixture of peat and sand. The fact is that the sand-peat mixture can prevent rotting of root crops.
Is it possible to grow in a greenhouse without heating?
Radish is not afraid of frost, even if grown in a greenhouse or greenhouse without heating. So, its shoots are able to withstand temperatures up to -1 ° C, and adult plants - up to -5 ° C. In this regard, planting can be done in the spring, even in an unheated greenhouse or greenhouse.
In this case, some additional rules should be observed:
- Provide beds "warm" heating. To do this, you can lay fresh, not overripe manure under planting. It can be ordinary horse, goat or cow, but the last two types must be mixed with straw. The manure should be moistened so that it is slightly dry. If there is no manure, ordinary hay, wood shavings or autumn leaves can be planted under the beds. In this case, any dead wood needs to be tamped with a layer up to 30 cm, doused with boiling water and a weak solution of potassium permanganate, cover tightly, let it boil and cover it with planting soil. After 5-7 days, you can start sowing seeds.
- Plant seeds after preliminary preparation immediately in the soil or in batch pots, which depends on the specific capabilities of the gardener. The optimal planting parameters are as follows: the depth of the holes is 1 cm, the row spacing is from 7 cm. If seeds of round varieties of radish are planted, the soil layer should be from 15 cm, and if elongated - from 20 cm.
- With a dense planting, seedlings are thinned out by 3-5 cm, so that the vegetable does not just stretch into the tops, but gives good root crops.
- Provide seedlings with competent care according to the above rules. At the same time, weeds must be regularly pulled out with roots, loosened and watered radishes 1-2 times a day with warm water (22-23 ° C).Feed the first seedlings with nitrogen at the rate of 1 hour per 10 liters of water, but you should not be too zealous, since radishes accumulate nitrates like a sponge. To accelerate the growth of root crops, the plant can be fed with potassium (2 parts per 10 liters of water) and superphosphate (3 parts per 10 liters of water).
- With a sharp drop in temperature, you should further protect the plant - sprinkle with water and throw a film on top. Under it, moist air will accumulate, which will prevent the plant from freezing. In the daytime, this film must be lifted.
Growing radishes as a business
You can harvest radishes in the greenhouse all year round, so many gardeners grow this crop for sale. It is noteworthy that such a business is easy to start from scratch, since products grown on one's own plot are not taxed.
So, you should start with small sales, and in the future, with the profitability of this business, you can register as an individual entrepreneur. This will make it possible not only to sell root crops on their own, but also to deliver products to stores and to the market.
When registering a business should specify “agricultural production” as the activity, since agricultural producers receive support from the state.
Beginning entrepreneurs should consider several recommendations:
- in order to continuously obtain root crops for sale, it is worth planting seeds every 1.5-2 weeks;
- the emphasis in your business should be placed on quality - choose varieties that produce tasty fruits for growing and subsequent sale;
- mainly grow classic varieties, but gradually you can add exotic;
- increase production in winter and summer, when radishes are in great demand.
Compared to other crops, radishes can be easily grown in a greenhouse, however, the plant can prematurely shoot an arrow, bring wooden or flabby root crops. In order to prevent such consequences, do not neglect the rules of agricultural technology of radishes and provide the plant with optimal growing conditions.