Content
With the onset of spring, the body's need for fresh vegetables awakens, and I just really want to crunch on delicious radishes, which are one of the first to please with the harvest in the spring beds.
Description
"French Breakfast" is an early, annual variety. From the moment the first sprouts appear until the fruit fully ripens, only three weeks pass. The root crop grows mainly in length, not width.
The fruits of the “French Breakfast” variety are neat, elongated-cylindrical, bright scarlet in color with a white tip. Weight from 15 to 40 g, length from 5 to 15 cm. Radish pulp is white, juicy, dense and without bitterness.
French Breakfast radishes have a compact rosette of leaves. The leaves, like the root vegetables, are not bitter and are used to make salads.
This radish variety is often used for reseeding, which can be done from April to September.
Advantages and disadvantages
The variety with such a beautiful name “French Breakfast” has many advantages and relatively insignificant disadvantages, for this reason gardeners love it.
Preparing seeds for sowing
Radish seeds of this variety intended for greenhouses are not subject to additional processing. But those that will be sown in the ground need to be approached more carefully.French Breakfast radish seeds are selected based on their size and weight.
You can also place radish seeds in a 5% salt solution. Remove those that float, and rinse the rest with running water and soak, placing them in a damp cloth or gauze for several days until they hatch.
Features of cultivation
French Breakfast radishes are grown 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 delight you with a good harvest:
- Maintaining temperature conditions.
- Timely watering.
- Loosening the soil.
- Compliance with lighting standards.
In the open ground
To plant radishes in open ground, it is better to choose fertile, sunny, sufficiently warmed areas with a low nitrogen content.
Sowing radishes of the “French Breakfast” variety is carried out throughout the season with a break of 14-21 days, so that the radishes delight with tasty root crops longer. “French Breakfast” seeds germinate already at a temperature of + 2C°, but the most suitable temperature for root formation is around + 18C°.
Radish seeds of this variety are sown in moistened furrows to a depth of about 1.5 cm. The width between rows should be 15-20 cm. It is advisable to leave a gap of 5 cm between the French Breakfast seeds. This planting avoids thinning of seedlings. Before the first shoots appear, the bed with root crops is covered with plastic wrap; it can be removed during the day.
Watering radishes of the “French Breakfast” variety is done approximately 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 rotting manure is poured onto the soil, and earth is sprinkled 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 6x6 spot method to a depth of approximately 1 cm. An average of 4.5 g of seeds is consumed per 1 m².
Caring for greenhouse seedlings is similar to caring for radishes of this variety planted in open ground.
Growing problems
In general, radishes of this variety are quite unpretentious, and the main problems of cultivation are violation of the rules of care.
Problems | Causes |
Seeds don't sprout | Low seed quality Deep sowing |
No root crop is formed | Dense crops Over-wetting the bed Insufficient lighting Availability of nitrogen in the soil |
Bitter fruits | Uneven hydration |
Radish bursting | Sudden change in moisture in the garden |
Abundant top growth and flowering | Excessively frequent weeding, loosening, thinning, excess fertilizer. |
Diseases and pests
It is very important to fertilize and fertilize this variety of radish on time; the procedures strengthen its immunity.
Diseases | Signs of defeat | Methods of control / prevention |
Powdery mildew (fungal disease) | Powdery coating on the above-ground parts of radishes. Deformation and drying of leaves.
| Treatment with fungicides or Bordeaux mixture. |
Vascular bacteriosis | Blackening of veins on leaves Yellowing, crumbling and falling leaves.
| Spraying with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture |
Clubroot (fungal disease) | Wilting and yellowing of foliage Ball-shaped growths on the roots. | Treatment with fluff lime solution (240 g per 10 l) |
Blackleg | Deformation and yellowing of foliage. Blackening at the base of the rosette. | Avoid neglect in plantings Treatment with a solution of 16g copper sulfate and 50g ordinary laundry soap |
In addition to diseases, radishes of this variety are also plagued by pests.
Pests | Signs of defeat | Methods of control / prevention |
Cruciferous flea beetle | Gnawed out leaf fragments. The plant stops growing and dries out. The appearance of small black bugs. | Timely feeding of the beds with slurry. Treatment with tobacco dust and wood ash powder (once a week) |
Cruciferous bug | The appearance of bugs with orange stripes. Drying of the root crop. | Spraying with henbane infusion. Treatment of the plant with infusion of Datura vulgare. |
Belyanka | The appearance of caterpillars eating leaves. | Treatment with a solution of 4 tbsp. l. mustard, 4 tbsp. l. salt, 2 tsp. chili powder in a bucket of water. |
Cabbage fly and cabbage moth | The appearance of larvae feeding on the juice of the root crop. Wilting of the plant. | Spraying with karbofos. Treatment with biological products. Autumn cleaning of plant residues. |
Conclusion
Obviously, with little effort and a minimum of costs, you can get a tasty and vitamin-rich product in a fairly short time. And how nice it is to watch a family gobble up radishes grown with their own hands for breakfast. And physical activity in the fresh air is quite good and free fitness.
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