Features of planting radishes in a greenhouse in early spring. When to start sowing?
The taste and useful qualities of radishes grown in a greenhouse do not differ from the same crop grown in open ground.
Radish is a cold-resistant unpretentious crop; the first crop of useful root crops can be harvested already in early spring.
This article describes in detail the nuances of planting radishes in a greenhouse, and gives useful recommendations for growing root crops.
When to start sowing radishes to get a super early crop?
Sowing is considered to be early, which is carried out with the first manifestations of spring and the retreat of cold weather. For early sowing in closed ground, varieties with a quick ripening period of 15-25 days are chosen. The first seeds are sown in early March, this allows you to rationally use the soil and grow the crop of early radishes before planting heat-loving crops (tomatoes and cucumbers) in late spring.
Early varieties of radish in cool growing conditions give a high-quality crop, do not allow shooters to form, and do not build up rough tops.
- Before sowing, the soil is loosened and leveled, sprinkled with a thin layer of snow and the culture is sown directly on slightly compacted snow. When thawing snow, the seeds will sink into the ground.
- In another variant of sowing, seeds are first sown on the soil, sprinkled with a small layer of soil and only then lay a thin layer of snow. This method simultaneously hardens the seeds and moistens the soil.
When is landing in spring?
Sowing is carried out in the greenhouse during the entire first month of spring. Radish-resistant radish seeds can germinate at a temperature of + 3 degrees and withstand its short-term decrease to -1 degree.For rooting and the beginning of vegetation, the culture needs a daily temperature of 10-13 degrees, for the beginning of the formation of root crops - 17-20 degrees. If the temperature is less than the specified limits, the ripening period of vegetables will be slightly delayed.
How to plant a vegetable in a greenhouse in March?
In order for the selected vegetable crop to be planted in accordance with agricultural standards and subsequently yield a decent harvest, the rules of the growing manual must be observed. To determine a suitable seed date many gardeners use the lunar planting calendar.
In the calendar of 2019, favorable sowing days in March are indicated: 10-12, 15-17, 23-25, 27-30.
Which grade to choose and why?
Growing radishes requires good lighting. With early crops in greenhouses in the conditions of prolonged cloudy weather and with insufficient greenhouse lighting, the tops will be stretched, and the root crops will ripen small. Therefore, for indoor cultivation, preference is given to hybrid varieties that are adapted to insufficient lighting.
These early varieties include:
- "French breakfast".
- "18 days."
- "Dawn."
- "The globe".
- "Greenhouse Gribovsky".
- "Beauty".
- "Ksenia".
- "Heat".
- "Duro" and others.
Each variety has certain qualities. For example:
- Grade "Heat" It is famous for its increased drought tolerance.
- "Dawn" - stress-resistant variety, it ripens in 24-30 days from the moment of sowing, differs from others in the absence of bitterness.
- "Greenhouse Gribovsky", best suited for sowing in early March. It is characterized by excellent germination of seeds.
- "Duro" possesses the largest root crops.
Where and for how much can I buy seeds?
Early radish seeds are always available in Moscow:
- In Garden Centers:
- "Compound".
- Gavrish.
- "Agro-success".
- In online stores:
- "Planet Gardener".
- "Seeds are here."
- "Seeds on Yablochkova".
In St. Petersburg, seed is purchased in garden centers:
- "House of Seeds."
- "Petroflora Northern Garden".
- "Dacha".
- "Flowers Peter."
- "The world of seeds."
Seeds are also ordered in online stores:
- "Ozone".
- "Your own gardener."
- "Garden and seeds."
- "Flowers-Peter."
- "House of Seeds."
Prices range from 3 to 27 rubles per bag weighing 0.5 g, depending on the variety. For example:
- "Radish Celeste F1 early" 0.5 g costs 17 rubles.
- The French Breakfast variety costs 6 rubles for a bag weighing 2 g.
Seed preparation
Radish seeds are best purchased at the garden center. Then carry out the preparation of seed material. It is necessary to identify unusable empty seeds, significantly reduces germination time and increases the resistance of seedlings to various diseases.
- First you need to calibrate - sort the seeds by size, this will allow seedlings to appear at about the same time. Large seeds are preferred, the length of which reaches 2-3 mm, since large seeds contain a sufficient amount of nutrients necessary for germination.
Seeds must be harvested from the last harvest. It is not recommended to use seeds 2-3 years old, as well as small seeds.
- Then seeds are soaked, this procedure speeds up germination. For this, the seed material is placed in warm water for 24 hours. The best results are obtained by soaking in natural growth stimulants:
- agave juice;
- honey solution;
- mortar with wood ash.
Planting material is immersed in such solutions for 10-12 hours.
- After soaking, a warm-up procedure is carried out to disinfect and increase resistance to diseases and pests. Warming up is carried out in hot (45-50 degrees) water for 25-30 minutes, then pulled out and dried.
- If it is possible and necessary equipment, sparging is carried out, during which an oily film is removed from the seed coat. This procedure also affects the acceleration of seedlings.
The seed material is placed in a glass jar of water, the tube of the aquarium compressor is immersed in water and the compressor is turned on. Bubbles of air in contact with the seeds contribute to the removal of the oil shell. Sparging is carried out for 8-9 hours, after which the seeds are dried.
- Prepared seed material must be immediately planted in the soil. To accelerate the process of germination, the seeds are germinated in advance. At the same time, they are laid on a damp cloth, wrapped and kept in a warm place. As soon as small shoots appear, the seeds begin to be planted in a permanent place in the greenhouse.
Landing process
Prepare the soil before planting.. It should have a weak acidity, be loose, absorb moisture well. The soil is preliminarily fertilized with organic substances. As soon as the soil in early March warms up in a greenhouse to a shallow depth, sowing work begins.
- For sowing, make shallow grooves and spill them with water.
- Sprouted seeds carefully, so as not to damage the sprout, spread out at a distance of 5 cm.
- The interval between the grooves is left 0.2 m. This planting scheme allows not to thin out the plants in the future, but to fully grow the seedlings. Landing is carried out and not sprouted seeds.
- Furrows with planting material are gently covered with a thin layer (up to 2 cm) of nutrient soil mixture, lightly tamped and watered with Fitoverm solution to prevent fungal diseases.
- The planted area is covered with a film, which is removed when the first shoots appear. The optimum temperature for germination is 18-20 degrees.
- As soon as the sprouts appear, the temperature is reduced to 8-10 degrees in order to eliminate the rapid growth of the aerial parts.
- When two true leaves appear, the temperature is increased to 19 degrees in the daytime and 16 degrees in the night.
The culture does not tolerate dense planting, it is necessary to thin out seedlings in a timely manner. When growing radishes in separate boxes, it is necessary to correctly calculate the height of the soil layer, it should be at least 25 cm.
After each watering, the soil must be fluffed up, weeds are removed., the premises of the greenhouse are aired or not closed at all. To preserve moisture, the soil is mulched. As the plants grow, they are fed with complex mineral fertilizers or organic, for example, a solution of wood ash or a weak solution of slurry.
When using fertilizers, it should be borne in mind that they affect the growth of the aerial parts, and the root crop will lag behind in growth.
Possible problems and difficulties
- When planting in early March, when the air has not yet warmed up, increased humidity is created in the greenhouse. This will lead to a fungal disease - the black leg. To prevent this, the greenhouse must be regularly ventilated.
- At the beginning of spring, daylight hours are still short; additional illumination is used in greenhouses.
- If the lighting is more than 13 hours a day, the culture will begin to bloom, without forming a root crop. Lighting must be turned off after 10-13 hours.
- Irregular watering causes the radish to crack and become sluggish. The soil should be moistened evenly.
Radish is a common spring vegetable crop. It is characterized by unpretentiousness, precocity and ease of cultivation. For the season you can collect 3 harvests of radish. For this, it is necessary to select high-quality planting material and observe agricultural conditions.