Raphanus sativus var. niger
Large round winter black radish, Spanish radish, large grey: its matte black skin conceals brilliantly white flesh and a strong character. While the small pink radish can be eaten in three weeks, this one takes its time, growing to the size of a fist and keeping all winter in sand.
Characteristics:
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Large round root: matte black skin, firm, crisp white flesh.
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Strong flavor: much hotter and more peppery than that of the monthly radish.
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Storage vegetable: it keeps for several months in a cellar, in sand.
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Hardy: it tolerates cold and is harvested late in the season.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: full sun to partial shade.
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Soil: deep, loose, moist and well-drained, without stones that could deform the root. Avoid fresh manure, which causes forking. Soil that remains moist is the key to crisp rather than fibrous flesh.
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Method: sow from mid-June to August, directly in place, in pockets spaced 25 cm apart, 2 cm deep. Late-summer sowing is essential: sown in spring, it bolts before forming its root. See how to sow seeds.
Care advice:
- Thin to one plant per pocket. Water regularly and evenly: drought makes it hollow, fibrous and fiery.
- Earth up slightly if the root becomes exposed and turns green at the top.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest before hard frosts, in October–November. Cut the tops to 2 cm, brush without washing, and store the roots in a crate of slightly damp sand in a cellar: they will keep until spring.
Beneficial combinations:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its taproot creates channels that aerate the soil deep down and make it easier for earthworms to work.
- If allowed to flower, it produces clusters of lilac-white flowers heavily visited by bees and hoverflies, whose larvae devour aphids.
Uses:
- Finely grated raw in salads (with cream or apple to soften the flavor), in carpaccio, or cooked like a turnip — sautéed, in a one-pot dish or as a velouté, it then loses much of its heat. Its tops can be cooked in soup.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few roots in the ground over winter: they will flower in spring and then form swollen siliques, which should be harvested when dry. Be careful, Raphanus sativus plants cross-pollinate with one another: isolate it from other radishes. See saving your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne volcanoes, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
A winter vegetable with a distinctive character, keeping until spring.
