Radish comes in two kinds that do different jobs. Fast salad radishes are sown little and often from spring through summer and pulled within weeks; winter radishes are sown in July or August and lifted through autumn and winter. Choose a variety of each if you want radish for most of the year.

Quick answer

For salads, Scarlet Globe is the dependable all-rounder, Amethyst gives purple roots that stay usable a little longer, and French Breakfast 4 Francis is the fastest. For winter, Black Spanish Round, with China Rose as a larger second choice.

What Scotland means for the choice

Changes in day length can make radishes bolt, running to flower before the root swells, and a Scottish June has very long days. That favours fast varieties, and sowing little and often rather than one big sowing, so each batch is ready before it can bolt. Winter radishes are sown in July or August for the same reason: sown earlier, they bolt and the root doesn't swell. The radish growing guide covers sowing times, clochesA small, portable clear cover placed over an individual plant or short row to trap warmth and keep off wind, rain and pests. Full definition → and harvesting.

The varieties compared

Three salad varieties hold the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGMThe RHS's Award of Garden Merit: a UK-wide trials award for reliable performance, not a Scotland-specific recommendation. Full definition →), a UK-wide award rather than a Scottish one: Scarlet Globe, Amethyst and French Breakfast 4 Francis. Black Spanish Round and China Rose are winter varieties without the award.

VarietyTypeRootReady inBest for
Scarlet GlobeSaladRed globe, white flesh, mildAbout 4 weeksAn everyday salad radish
AmethystSaladPurple skin, crisp white fleshAbout 4 weeksA little more slack at harvest
French Breakfast 4 FrancisSaladRed, cylindrical, white tipAbout 21 daysSpeed, and summer heat
IlkaSaladRound, Russian heirloom—Staying crisp at a larger size
TarzanSaladRound, crimson—Early sowings; stays crisp for weeks
Black Spanish RoundWinterRound, black skin, sharp white flesh8–10 weeksAutumn and winter
China RoseWinterOblong, medium to large8–10 weeksA larger winter root
A bunch of small round red radishes with green tops next to a larger round black-skinned radish with white flesh showing
Scarlet Globe (left), ready in about four weeks, and Black Spanish Round (right), a winter radish that takes 8–10 weeks.

Salad radishes

Every salad radish is ready within about a month, and every one gets worse the longer it sits: left past about 2.5cm, the roots turn pithy, hot and inedible. The differences between varieties come down mostly to speed and how much slack they give you at the end.

Scarlet Globe is the plain, dependable choice: round red roots with white flesh and a mild flavour, ready in about four weeks.

Amethyst has purple skin and crisp white flesh, and is slow to turn woody, which helps if your harvest sometimes slips by a few days.

French Breakfast 4 Francis is the fastest, ready in about 21 days, and has high tolerance of summer heat. The speed matters more than the heat tolerance here: a 21-day variety fits an extra sowing or two into the season.

Ilka, a Russian heirloom, grows to 7.5cm across without becoming pithy, and Tarzan, a round crimson variety, is good for early sowings and stays crisp for weeks. Both give more slack than Amethyst if you often miss the harvest window, though the seed is less common, so check availability before planning a bed around them.

Winter radishes

Black Spanish Round has black skin and sharp-flavoured white flesh. It's a late-maturing heritage variety for lifting in autumn and winter, and the better-known of the two.China Rose gives medium to large oblong roots, a good second winter variety to grow alongside it.

Which one for your situation

  • Pulling radish within a day or two of it being ready: Scarlet Globe.
  • A less predictable week, with work, weather or time away: Amethyst, or Ilka for even more slack.
  • Fitting in as many sowings as possible: French Breakfast 4 Francis.
  • Radish through autumn and winter: Black Spanish Round, with China Rose alongside for variety.

No variety resists the usual radish problems. Watch for slugs and snails on seedlings, flea beetles, whose damage is cosmetic on this crop, cabbage root fly, more of a risk to the slower winter types, and club root, which affects radish like any other brassicaThe cabbage family: cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, swede, turnip and more, sharing the same pests, diseases and rotation rules. Full definition →.

Common questions

Which radish is most forgiving if I forget to pull it on time?

Amethyst is slow to turn woody. For even more slack, Ilka can grow to 7.5cm across without going pithy, well past the 2.5cm or so at which ordinary salad radish is best pulled.

What's the fastest radish to grow?

French Breakfast 4 Francis, ready in about 21 days, around a week quicker than Scarlet Globe or Amethyst. That speed helps you fit extra sowings into the season.

Does any radish resist club rootA soil-borne fungal disease of the brassica family that swells and distorts roots, and survives in soil for years. Full definition → or flea beetle?

No. None of these varieties has any published resistance to club root or flea beetle, so rotationMoving each crop family to different ground each year, on a multi-year cycle, so pests and diseases that build up in soil don't get a repeat host. Full definition → and good growing practice matter more than which one you sow.

Sources

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