Oil radish: how to sow
Oil radish is a versatile plant that can be used as fertilizer for soil, fodder for livestock and honey plants. The plant copes with all these tasks perfectly.
Oil radish is grown from seeds from early spring to late autumn. The plant has many advantages, including fast germination and resistance to adverse weather conditions.
Oil radish can be used as green manure, feed and honey plant
Radish can be used for several purposes:
- Like a siderat. It has a positive effect on the quality of the soil. Increases its fertility, looseness, air permeability. Its powerful root system, which goes deep underground, is capable of lifting all the nutrients from there. When you dig up the soil with green manure, it is saturated with mineral and organic substances.
- As a means of controlling weeds, diseases and pests. Thanks to the essential oils included in the plant, radish has antifungal properties, effectively destroys many harmful insects and prevents weeds from growing.
- Like livestock feed. Due to its early maturity and high yield rates, the plant can be mowed up to 3 times in one season, giving up to 700 centners per hectare. It can either serve as a stand-alone food or be added to other herbs, vegetables, cereals or cereals.
- Like a honey plant. Flowering reaches 30 days, during this entire period, it secretes nectar. Honey has a distinct taste, aroma and many medicinal properties.
The very same radish is unpretentious in care. It grows on any, even the most impoverished soils, is not afraid of drought and frost.
How to sow oilseed radish correctly?
Before proceeding with sowing seeds, the soil is prepared by surface treatment with a cultivator. After 2-3 weeks, when the top layer settles and evens out, you can start planting.
You can plant seeds in rows or in bulk, depending on the purpose of growing. So, for feed and as green manure, radish is sown in rows every 15 cm to a depth of no more than 4 cm. For large areas, green manure can be sown in bulk, after mixing the seeds with sand for a more even distribution.
When planting a radish after mid-August, the number of seeds is doubled, since plant growth may be slowed down
As a melliferous plant, the plant is planted in rows every 40 cm to a depth of no more than 3-4 cm. Already after 4 days the seeds give their first shoots, and after 40 days they begin to bloom.
Growing radishes on the site will not only not bring additional hassle and problems in care, but will also have a beneficial effect on the quality and health of the soil. In addition, the flowering plant can serve as bait for pollinating insects and feed for livestock.