An elegantly shaped radish — elongated cylindrical form, pink skin and white tip — that is ready to harvest in record time.
About the variety. Flamboyant 2 stands out for its bicolour appearance and mildly spicy flavour, excellent thinly sliced or grated raw. Ideal for container growing thanks to its compact size of 15–25 cm.
Itinerário técnico
Como cultivar radish flamboyant 2?
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
pH ideal 6.0 to 7.0Temperatura ideal 10 to 20 °CCompasso 3 to 5 cm in the row, 15 to 20 cm between rows
Sementeira
Always sow direct, one to one and a half centimetres deep in rows, and thin to three or five centimetres between plants as soon as they emerge. Germination takes three to five days. Sowing too thickly and not thinning is the direct cause of radishes that make nothing but leaves. Sow every two weeks for a continuous supply. At about 25 centimetres tall, this variety grows well in a pot twenty centimetres deep with drainage holes. Use a pot at least twenty five centimetres deep with drainage holes, and expect to water more often, because a pot dries out far faster than open ground.
Solo
It wants loose, fine, stone free and moist soil at a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. No manure and no nitrogen feeding, which give leaves instead of root. Compacted soil gives deformed hard roots. A little mature sieved compost worked in before sowing is enough for the whole cycle.
Clima
A cool weather crop, between 10 °C and 20 °C, and very fast: twenty five to thirty five days. Above 25 °C the root turns hot, hollow and fibrous and the plant bolts, so avoid midsummer sowings inland in Iberia. The Portuguese coast offers close to ideal conditions and allows harvests over much of the year. Inland in Portugal and Spain, concentrate the crop in autumn, winter and early spring, because from June onwards heat and long days push it to bolt and turn bitter. In France it grows easily from spring to autumn, and in Germany the whole summer works because it is rarely too hot. In Italy follow the Iberian calendar in the centre and south, concentrating the crop in autumn and winter, and the French calendar in the north, where the Po valley summer rarely makes it bolt too early. Light shade over the middle of the day extends the harvest in any warm climate.
Fertilização
Do not use fresh manure or strong nitrogen feeding: that gives forked, hairy and tasteless roots. Use a bed that was composted for the previous crop and top up potassium only, with sieved wood ash, which improves sweetness and keeping quality. In such a short cycle there is no time to feed during the crop: everything the plant needs must be in the soil before sowing.
Rega
Water often and consistently: it is the key to this crop. Irregular watering gives split, hollow and very hot roots. Soil kept slightly moist at all times produces crisp mild radishes in under a month.
Controlo de Infestantes
Hoe often and always shallowly, because the roots are short, near the surface and break easily. The best method is to prepare the bed two or three weeks in advance, let the first flush of weeds germinate, remove it and only then sow: that gives you a decisive head start. A thin layer of sieved compost between the rows greatly reduces later work.
Controlo de Pragas
Flea beetle, a small jumping beetle, riddles young leaves with round holes in hot dry weather: keep the soil moist and cover with fine mesh from sowing. Cabbage white caterpillars and diamondback moth eat the leaves: apply Bacillus thuringiensis while the caterpillars are small. Cabbage root fly lays at the collar and the larva destroys the root: a cardboard or felt collar around the stem stops the egg laying. Grey cabbage aphid forms waxy colonies on the shoots and is dealt with using potassium soap. A fine insect mesh put on at sowing solves practically all of these at once.
Doenças
Being a short cycle crop it suffers few diseases. The main risks are root rot in waterlogged soil and clubroot if the family is repeated in the same bed. Rotate with cabbages, turnips and rocket, and do not sow in poorly drained ground. In cool damp weather downy mildew or white blister sometimes appears on the leaves: space well and water in the morning so the foliage dries quickly.
Colheita
Pull as soon as the root reaches the size for the variety, without waiting another day: a radish left in the ground goes hollow, spongy and aggressively hot within a week. Pull by the leaves while the soil is damp. The young leaves are edible and excellent in soup. The reference colour is red and white, and that is what tells you it is ready.
