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With the onset of spring, the body’s need for fresh vegetables wakes up, and you just really want to crunch on delicious radish, which is one of the first in a hurry to please the harvest in the spring beds.
Description
‘French Breakfast’ refers to an early, annual variety. From the moment the first sprouts appear to the full ripening of the fetus, only three weeks pass. The root crop grows mainly in length, and not in width.
The fruits of the “French Breakfast” variety are neat, elongated-cylindrical, bright scarlet in color with a white tip. Weight is from 15 to 40 g, length is from 5 to 15 cm. Radish pulp is white, juicy, dense and without bitterness.
The French Breakfast radish has a compact rosette of leaves. The leaves, like root vegetables, do not have bitterness, and are used to make salads.
This variety of radish is often used for re-seeding, which can be produced from April to September.
Advantages and disadvantages
The variety with such a beautiful name “French Breakfast” has many advantages, and relatively minor disadvantages, for this reason gardeners love it.
Preparation of seeds for sowing
Radish seeds of this variety, intended for the greenhouse, are not subject to additional processing. But those that will be sown in the ground need to be approached more carefully. Radish seeds “French breakfast” are selected based on their size and weight.
You can also place radish seeds in a 5% salt solution. Remove those that pop up, and rinse the rest with running water and soak, placing them in a damp cloth or gauze for several days until they hatch.
Peculiarities of growing
French Breakfast radishes are grown all year round. From April to September – in the garden. And the rest of the time – in the greenhouse. The main thing is to adhere to the basic rules of care, and then the French Breakfast radish will please you with a good harvest:
- Compliance with the temperature regime.
- Timely watering.
- Loosening the soil.
- Compliance with lighting standards.
In open ground
For planting radishes in open ground, it is better to choose fertile, sunny, sufficiently heated areas with a low nitrogen content.
Sowing radishes of the “French Breakfast” variety is produced all season with a break of 14-21 days, so that the radishes please longer with delicious root crops. Seeds of “French Breakfast” germinate already at a temperature of + 2C°, but the most suitable temperature for the formation of a root crop is about + 18C°.
Radish seeds of this variety are sown in moistened grooves to a depth of about 1,5 cm. The width between rows should be 15-20 cm. Before the first sprouts appear, the bed with root crops is covered with plastic wrap, which can be removed during the day.
Watering the French Breakfast radish is done about twice a week, and every other day it is necessary to loosen the soil.
In the greenhouse
In greenhouses, when planting French Breakfast radishes, biological heating methods are often used – a layer of decaying manure is poured onto the soil, and sprinkled with earth on top. But if the winter is going to be frosty, then it is better to stock up on heating devices.
Although this variety is resistant to cold, the soil temperature should not fall below + 2 ° C. It is better to sow radishes using the point method 6 × 6 to a depth of approximately 1 cm. An average of 1 g of seeds is consumed per 4,5 m².
Caring for greenhouse seedlings is similar to caring for radishes of this variety planted in open ground.
Growth Problems
In general, the radish of this variety is quite unpretentious, and the main problems of cultivation are a violation of the rules of care.
Problems | Causes |
Seeds don’t germinate | Poor seed quality Deep seeding |
Root crop does not form | dense crops Waterlogging beds Insufficient lighting The presence of nitrogen in the soil |
bitter fruits | Uneven hydration |
radish bursting | A sharp drop in moisture in the garden |
Abundant leaf growth and flowering | Excessively frequent weeding, loosening, thinning, excess fertilizer. |
Diseases and pests
It is very important to fertilize and feed this variety of radish in time, the procedures strengthen its immunity.
Diseases | Signs of defeat | Ways to fight / prevent |
Powdery mildew (fungal disease) | Powdery coating on the ground part of the radish. Deformation and drying of the leaves.
| Treatment with fungicides or Bordeaux liquid. |
Vascular bacteriosis | Blackening of leaf veins Yellowing, crumbling and falling leaves.
| Spraying with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture |
Kila (fungal disease) | Wilting and yellowing of foliage Spherical outgrowths on the roots. | Treatment with a lime solution (240 g per 10 l) |
Blackleg | Deformation and yellowing of foliage. Blackening of socket bases. | Avoid neglect in plantings Treatment with a solution of 16 g of copper sulfate and 50 g of ordinary laundry soap |
In addition to diseases, pests also annoy the radish of this variety.
vermin | Signs of defeat | Ways to fight / prevent |
Cruciferous flea | Gnawed fragments of leaves. The plant stops growing and dries up. The appearance of small black bugs. | Timely top dressing of the beds with slurry. Treatment with powder from tobacco dust and wood ash (once a week) |
cruciferous bug | The appearance of bugs with orange stripes. Root drying. | Spraying with henbane infusion. Treatment of the plant with an infusion of dope ordinary. |
Bellyanka | The appearance of caterpillars eating leaves. | Treatment with a solution of 4 tbsp. l. mustard, 4 tbsp. l. salt, 2 tsp. chili pepper powder in a bucket of water. |
cabbage fly and cabbage moth | The appearance of larvae that feed on root juice. Withering of the plant. | Spraying with karbofos. Biological treatment. Autumn cleaning of plant residues. |
Conclusion
Obviously, with little effort and a minimum of costs, you can get a tasty and vitamin product in a fairly short time. And how nice it is to watch the family gobble up home-grown radishes for breakfast. Yes, and physical activity in the fresh air is a pretty good and free fitness.
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