Plant · P-199

Radish

Raphanus sativus

Radish covers a range of types from the quick salad root to daikon and tillage radish, all the same species put to very different uses. The tillage types drive a thick taproot straight through compacted clay, scavenging as much as 150 pounds of nitrogen per acre in six to eight weeks and holding it against leaching. A few nights in the low twenties Fahrenheit kill the plant outright, so it terminates itself over winter and leaves open root channels behind for no-till planting in spring, with no mowing or herbicide needed. The eating root, by contrast, wants loose, fertile soil to grow straight and smooth - the same plant goes stubby and forked in the compacted ground where the tillage type does its best work.