Raphanus sativus
Round yellow radish, golden radish, golden radish: yellow is a rare color among radishes, and this one has a distinctive feature to match — its white flesh is noticeably milder than that of pink radishes, almost without any bite. Taking 40 days from sowing to plate, it is also one of the fastest crops in the vegetable garden.
Characteristics:
-
Golden-yellow skin: an unusual color, covering crisp white flesh.
-
Mild flavor: low in pungency, perfect for children and raw vegetable dishes.
-
40-day cultivation: one of the quickest harvests you can grow.
-
Suitable for growing in planters: perfect for a balcony or terrace.
Sowing advice:
-
Exposure: sunny, or lightly shaded during periods of intense heat.
-
Soil: cool, loose, rich in humus, and well drained. Avoid stony soils, which hinder root growth, and fresh manure, which causes the roots to fork.
-
Method: sow thinly, directly in place, only 1 cm deep. Sow small amounts at a time every two weeks: much more effective than one large sowing. See how to sow your seeds.
Care advice:
- Thin to 4 cm apart if the sowing is dense: when crowded, radishes produce leaves instead of roots.
-
The decisive factor: water frequently, never allowing the soil to dry out. A thirsty radish becomes pungent, fibrous, and hollow.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest as soon as they reach their full size, without waiting: once past their optimal stage, the root becomes hollow within a few days.
- The leaves can be cooked in soup or made into pesto.
Beneficial combinations:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- If allowed to bolt, it produces white to lilac flowers that are heavily visited by bees and hoverflies, whose larvae devour aphids.
- Its green, crisp, peppery pods can be eaten raw — one more reason to let it flower.
Uses:
- Raw with salt, in salads for a splash of color, or as pickles. Its mildness means it can be served on its own, unlike more pungent radishes.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few plants to flower, then allow them to form their swollen pods. Harvest them when thoroughly dry and shell them. Be aware that Raphanus sativus plants cross-pollinate with one another: 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 Auvergne Volcanoes, 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.
A mild, golden radish, harvested in 40 days.
