Radish 'Raphael' F1 (Raphanus sativus) is a fast hybrid radish with smooth, round roots, crisp flesh and a mild bite, noticeably less pungent than many traditional radishes. Hybrid vigour is what you are buying: the roots come up uniform in size and shape, ready in around four to six weeks from sowing.
What it does
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Harvest inside six weeks. Around four to six weeks from sowing to pulling, faster than anything else in a vegetable bed.
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Even, round roots. F1 breeding holds size and shape consistent, so a sowing matures together instead of in dribs and drabs.
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Mild rather than hot. Crisp texture and gentle flavour, which suits gardeners who find older radish varieties too sharp.
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Grows without fuss. It performs evenly across a range of conditions and needs no mulching or fertiliser to stay productive.
How to use it
Sow direct where the crop will grow, into loose, well drained soil that has been broken up and raked level. Radish is a root crop and does not take transplanting, so skip the seedling tray. Cover the seed lightly and keep the bed evenly moist until the seedlings are through.
Thin seedlings to 5cm to 8cm apart once they are up, because that gap lets the roots fill out properly. Sowing heavier than you need is worth doing: the thinnings pull as baby radish and total yield rises. It can be sown year round, with autumn and spring the best seasons. Pull the roots as soon as they size up, since a radish left sitting turns woody.
What it suits
Open vegetable beds. Loose, free draining ground gives the cleanest roots, and a crop this quick slots in between slower plantings.
Raised beds and containers. Any pot with real drainage grows it, and small spaces suit a vegetable that is in and out inside a month.
Succession sowing. The harvest window is short, so a fresh row every two to three weeks keeps a kitchen supplied instead of producing one glut.
It is not a crop for heavy, stony or compacted ground, where roots fork and stall. The leaves are edible too, picked young for salads or wilted into soup. Delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95.
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