GROWING RADISHES THAT DON’T GET PITHY 
A. KRUHM 
Any One Can Do It If Soil, Variety, Season, and Spacing are Considered Together 
T HERE is no excuse for pithy Radishes. Yet plenty of 
Radishes are pithy! And there are three reasons for that, 
i, e: (i) improper soil, (2) growing the wrong variety for a given 
season, (3) not thinning out. 
First, as to the soil. The “ ideal ” for this particular vegetable 
is a well enriched loam, with a slight admixture of clay; one that 
is rich in humus and almost devoid of clay will grow as brittle 
and as handsome a Radish as any one may want, but it will be 
practically tasteless. On the other hand, in a stiff clay devoid 
of humus the development of the Radish will be so slow that it 
becomes woody or, during a sudden hot spell, spongy and pithy; 
and it also tends to make side roots. On a sandy loam, however, 
the Radishes are at their best for such a brief period that the 
gardener may quite overlook the time when they are at their 
prime. Few varieties of extra early kinds are in condition 
longer than five days after they reach table size. 
It is just as disastrous to plant late kinds too early as it is to 
plant early kinds too late. For all practical purposes Radishes 
may be divided into early, mid-season, and late sorts. Among the 
early varieties some of the best behaved are Rapid Red, Crimson 
Giant Forcing, Scarlet Globe, Sparkler, French Breakfast, Fong 
Scarlet Short Top, and White Icicle. It is a peculiar fact that 
the handsomest Radishes are also the ones showing the most 
fickle tendencies. Among those named, Sparkler (which is the 
finest strain of Scarlet Turnip White Tip), and French Break- 
fast, its olive-shaped companion, will become pithy much more 
quickly under contrary conditions of soil and season than any 
of the rest. 
Fong Scarlet Short Top has a white-tipped associate, Fong 
Brightest Scarlet or Cardinal. Within the short period of 
twenty-four hours, on rich muck soil 1 have known this 
latter to turn from a perfect looking, though comparatively 
tasteless crop, to a pithy, useless one. So rapid is the deteriora- 
tion of this variety that the growers themselves frequently are 
not aware that the perfectly good Radishes they marketed 
yesterday are unfit for market to-day. 
The varieties named, and in the order given, with fair soil and 
weather conditions, should become ready for use in from eigh- 
teen to twenty-five days, up to May 1st. 
T HERE are really only three varieties that deserve to be 
called heat-resisting, mid-season sorts. One is Chartier, 
or Shepherd, which is a long red Radish, ready for pulling from 
July 1st to 1 5th from seeds sown May 1st to 1 5th. Other claims 
to the contrary notwithstanding, I have found Fong White 
Vienna, or Fady Finger, no better than Icicle. 
The other two varieties that will really stand heat are White 
Strasburg and White Stuttgart, both white-skinned, firm- 
fleshed, summer varieties, differing somewhat in shape and — 
though very little — in time of maturity. From seeds sown early 
in May they will give good returns during August, when every 
other variety goes on strike. 
T HERE are two distinct classes of the large-growing winter 
kinds: one that keeps well and one that does not. The 
Chinese varieties, of which White Chinese, or Celestial, and Chin- 
ese Rose Winter are the best-known, will grow woody or spongy 
after December 1st, no matter what soil produced them. On 
the other hand, the European varieties of the Spanish type will 
require longer to develop and will not grow so large, but will be 
firm-fleshed until away late into spring. Now just as there is a 
likelihood of planting early Radishes too late so also may the 
mistake be made of planting the winter varieties too early! 
In the latitude of New York the best time is about July 
1st to 15th; i. e., when you would sow winter Turnips. An 
earlier sowing may yield a larger root, but not one fit for the 
table. 
The last, though not the least important, point in Radish grow- 
ing is the need of proper thinning out and transplanting. Most 
home gardeners (and even professionals, for that matter) seem 
to forget that good Radish seed, such as is sent out by every 
reliable seed house, grows better than 90 per cent. In con- 
sequence about ten times as much seed in a row as that row 
can hold in the way of well-developed Radishes is usually 
sown. 
Even when planted with the greatest precaution, every row of 
Radishes will hold too many seedlings; and crowded rows, while 
not directly responsible for pithy roots, help a great deal to bring 
this condition about. Therefore, thin out determinedly; allow 
for the small round kinds one to two inches apart in the 
row; for the long and mid-season varieties, at least four 
inches apart in the row, six inches being better for both 
White Strasburg and White Stuttgart; winter Radishes should 
be at least six inches apart; for the Chinese varieties, eight 
inches is better. 
A final warning: don’t experiment with forcing strains in the 
open ground. Nearly every catalogue published makes claims 
of special earliness for specific varieties particularly suitable for 
growing under glass. It is not reasonable to expect them to 
behave the same in the open ground; and moreover, these are the 
very varieties that will get pithy before the planter has a chance 
to suspect it. 
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