Raphanus sativus
Round purple radish, Gournay purple radish, purple radish: its deep purple skin contrasts with bright white flesh — cut in half, it always makes an impression on a raw vegetable platter. An old spring variety, it reaches maturity in around forty days.
Characteristics:
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Purple and white contrast: highly decorative when sliced or cut in half.
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Good flavor: crisp, with a moderate, pronounced pepperiness.
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Maturity in 40 days: a very quick harvest, ideal for beginners.
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Can be grown in a planter: perfect for a terrace or balcony.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: sunny, or partially shaded in hot weather, in a temperate climate.
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Soil: cool, loose, humus-rich and well-drained, preferably slightly sandy. Avoid stones, which deform the root, and fresh manure, which causes it to fork.
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Method: sow directly in the ground, 1 cm deep, spacing the rows 10 to 15 cm apart. Sow thinly and stagger sowings every two weeks. See how to sow your seeds.
Care advice:
- Thin to 4 cm if the seedlings are crowded. Keep the soil moist but not waterlogged.
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The decisive factor: consistent watering. A thirsty radish becomes hot, hollow and fibrous — this is the number one cause of failure.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest as soon as they have reached a satisfactory size, generally after 4 to 6 weeks. Don’t wait: the root becomes hollow quickly.
- The leaves can be cooked in soup or made into pesto.
Beneficial combinations:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- If left to flower, it produces white to lilac flowers that are heavily visited by bees and hoverflies, whose larvae devour aphids.
- Its green, crisp and peppery pods can be nibbled raw as an appetizer.
Uses:
- Raw with salt, with butter on bread, in salads or pickles — vinegar brings out its purple color.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Let a few plants flower, then form their swollen pods. Harvest them when thoroughly dry and shell them. Be careful: Raphanus sativus plants cross-pollinate with one another, so isolate your seed plants from other radishes. See how to store 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 Volcanoes of Auvergne, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to restore gardeners’ ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
An old radish with deep purple coloring, ready in six weeks.
