Red Radish 25g

Red Radish is the classic round salad radish, prized for its glossy, bright-red skin and crisp, snow-white flesh that delivers a clean, refreshing peppery bite. Because it is a fast-maturing salad type, it slips easily into any garden plan and is at its best raw — sliced into salads, layered into sandwiches, or served whole as a crunchy garnish. Its vivid colour and quick turnaround make it one of the most rewarding roots to grow fresh at home.

Planting

Radish is a cool-season crop that is direct-sown straight where it will grow, since it dislikes root disturbance and is never transplanted. Sow the seed about 1 cm deep, spacing seeds roughly 2.5-5 cm apart with about 15 cm between rows. For a steady supply, make small repeated sowings every 10-14 days rather than one large planting. In Egypt the reliable window is the mild winter, roughly mid/late October through February, when day temperatures sit in the ideal 15-25 C range. In the Nile Delta and Lower Egypt, sow from late October to early February with successional sowings; in warmer Upper Egypt (Aswan/Luxor), shift the window slightly later and tighter, around November through January, leaning on the coolest months. Avoid sowing from late spring through summer (April-September), when heat all but guarantees bolting. Seedlings emerge in roughly 3-10 days — commonly 4-7 days in warm soil and up to 10 days in cooler soil — with the fastest germination near 21 C.

Fertilizing

Prepare the bed with aged compost before sowing, and side-dress with more aged compost at midseason. Steer clear of fresh manure and high-nitrogen fertilizers: they push lush leafy top growth at the expense of the roots you actually want. A balanced or low-nitrogen feed is the better choice, and root crops respond well to a phosphorus-leaning blend such as 5-10-10.

Care

Keep the soil consistently moist for rapid, even growth and crisp, non-split roots — aim for about 2.5 cm of water per week and soak the bed thoroughly at least once a week, watering sandy soils more often than heavy clay. Irregular or insufficient water turns roots woody and unpleasantly hot. Grow in an open, sunny site; light shade can help reduce bolting in warmer spells. Thin the seedlings about a week after they emerge, leaving salad radishes around 2-2.5 cm apart so each root has room to swell. Watch for flea beetles, which leave small holes in the leaves, along with root maggots, slugs, snails and aphids — floating row cover and steady moisture help keep them in check. Salad radishes are ready fast, in about 3-5 weeks (20-30 days) from sowing, once the roots reach roughly 2.5 cm across. Harvest promptly, because over-mature roots become woody, pithy and prone to splitting.