How to grow radishes on a windowsill, which varieties will give a good harvest?

Almost everyone drives green onions at home, some housewives grow them in boxes parsley and dill, but not everyone knows that in an apartment you can perfectly grow radishes on a windowsill. This root vegetable can be purchased in the store in any season, but its taste and price do not always please the buyer. If you arrange a small garden bed in the room, you can always enjoy a salad of juicy red vegetables, the taste and aroma of which will immediately remind you of the summer, summer season.

What do you need to work?

In the garden, you can also plant seeds with poor germination: the area is large, and then you will throw carrot or green seeds into empty spaces. But when growing vegetables in an apartment, every centimeter is important, so you need to plant only reliable grains bought in specialized stores. After tearing open the bag, select seeds of the same size with an intact brown coat. Fill them with water, and when the grains begin to swell, take for planting only those that have drowned.

Not every species is suitable for growing at home. Avoid capricious and exotic varieties right away. Choose early maturing varieties that are not too demanding on care and growing conditions.

Radish of the following varieties can give a good harvest:

• 16 days (earliest);
• Zarya;
• Soundboard;
• Carmen;
• Champion;
• Early red.

In order for the radish to ripen quickly and turn out to be tasty, you need to plant it in suitable soil. The stores have fully prepared soils for any crops, you can use this option. You can also cook the ground yourself, and so that there are no infections or harmful larvae, you need to steam all the ingredients in the oven. You can mix in equal proportions garden soil with peat or equal amounts of soil, humus and sand. Add complex fertilizer there - and you can start sowing.

You can grow radishes on a windowsill in a wooden and plastic container with a depth of at least 15 cm. You can take large boxes for a whole garden bed, containers or flower pots that will fit several plants, or individual cups for each instance. Remember that window sill space is very limited. If you take a large container, sow it with seeds of the same variety. The crop will ripen at about the same time, and you can use the box for new plantings.

Important!

Whichever container you choose, check that there are good drainage holes in the bottom.

Sowing seeds

When you checked the quality of the seeds, you threw them in the water and let them swell a little. Now the grains need to start germinating. Under water without air access, developing embryos can die. As soon as the seed begins to swell, transfer it to a damp cloth and place in a warm place. Make sure that the fabric does not dry out, you can wrap it in plastic wrap. Radishes release roots very quickly - check the condition of the seed several times a day. As soon as you notice growing roots, immediately start sowing.

Fill the containers with soil, do not forget to put coarse sand or pebbles on the bottom for drainage. Make pits or grooves in the ground about 15 mm deep. The distance between the plants should be at least 3 cm. Pour warm water over the soil, spread the grains and sprinkle them with earth. Water the plantings carefully so that the ground is compacted and there are no air voids. Wrap the boxes in plastic and place in a warm place with a temperature of about + 20⁰C.In such conditions, the grains will begin to develop very quickly and will soon sprout.

Remember to keep an eye on the crops. After 3 days you will see green sprouts. Open the containers and immediately transfer them to the Spartan tempering conditions. Plants will not tolerate extreme cold, but at + 8⁰C they will survive and get stronger. It is not necessary to torment young shoots for a long time, 4 days will be enough. After that, you can put the boxes back on the warm windowsill.

Root crops will ripen very quickly. In a month and a half, you will eat the entire crop, and it will still be very far before the end of winter. To keep fresh vegetables on the table constantly, sow seeds every decade. Do not hope that in winter you can completely forget about summer cottage work. Growing radishes and greens is not too burdensome, and all the work will pay off thanks to gratitude from family members for a delicious dish.

Home care for radishes

In summer, gardeners find it difficult to grow succulent root crops due to too long daylight hours, and in winter there may not be enough light for plants. In the polar night conditions, the radish will grow, but it will be small, hollow and tasteless. If the dark time of the day lasts more than 14 hours, hang lamps over the plantings and turn them on in the morning and evening. If the room is warm, you can use fluorescent lamps, and on a cold loggia it is better to use incandescent lamps, they will also serve as heaters.

Remember the children's story about tops and roots? It is in your power to enhance the growth of tops or roots. If the room is hot and there is little light, you will end up with incredibly lush leaves that are difficult to stick to a thin root. Radishes do not tolerate high temperatures well. Do not place the boxes on the windowsill where the battery is located, the plants will be hot. The optimum temperature for the development of root crops does not exceed + 20⁰C, at night it is desirable to be even cooler. If you love living in a hot room, don't assume that the radishes will like it too. This is a cold-resistant plant, find another well-lit but cool place for planting.

For root vegetables to grow large and juicy, they need enough moisture. Just do not overdo it, a good harvest will not develop in the swamp either. Water when the topsoil has a dry crust. Be sure to monitor the condition of the drainage holes, there should be no stagnant moisture at the bottom. After moistening, the soil needs to be slightly loosened.

Radish grows quickly, for development it has enough nutrients that you put in the ground when planting. Any owner wants to grow a record harvest, and with the help of mineral fertilizers, each radish can be the size of a small beet. Decide for yourself whether you want to eat large and dangerous vegetables or normal size radishes without chemicals and toxins. If your thirst to grow record-worthy vegetables haunts you, at least for the kids, make one box without excess fertilizer.

Advice

At home, the radish pulp quickly coarsens. Do not let the roots overgrow; harvest as soon as they ripen.

Is it difficult to grow radishes in winter?

Some housewives would like to prepare a salad of fresh vegetables in winter, but do not know if it is possible to grow good radishes on the windowsill. Busy women refer to the fact that they have absolutely no time to care for the plantings. Cast aside doubts, stop making excuses about your busyness or lack of space in the apartment. If desired, you can grow a beautiful crop even in a flower pot.

It doesn't take much time to get to work. The main labor intensity falls on sowing, which must be carried out every 10-15 days. Then you will need a couple of minutes every day to look at the plantings and, if necessary, remove the film from the seedlings. Watering will not take much longer than caring for indoor flowers. You can turn on and off the lamps for illumination in one second.It takes much more time to talk on the phone or chat on social networks.

In an apartment with small windows and narrow window sills, you can build racks in several tiers. In the southern regions, you can put a heater on a glazed and insulated loggia and grow vegetables there. Consider also the additional benefits of the beds on the windowsill. In apartments of panel and block houses, the air is often too dry, which badly affects the health of the whole family, and boxes with plantings will serve as natural humidifiers, the microclimate in the room will become healthier.

You can take the same soil in which you grew the previous batch, just add nutrients to the soil that the previous radish used.

Do not assume that fresh salads in winter are a delicacy available only to wealthy families. Green onions, spices and radishes grow beautifully on any windowsill, and in any season you will be able to feast on freshly ripened vegetables even every day. Arrange vitamin beds on the window, and you will stop looking with hatred at the counters filled with incredibly expensive root crops in winter.