Raphanus sativus Seeds | French Breakfast Radish
LATIN NAME: Raphanus sativus
COMMON NAME: French Breakfast Radish, Radish
Plant Profile
French Breakfast is the classic long radish: a cylindrical root 6-8 cm long, carmine at the shoulder and fading to a white tip, ready to pull in about 25 days from sowing. The flesh is white, crisp and mild, with just enough pepper to be interesting and none of the harshness of older varieties.
The plant is a fast annual, grown entirely for the root, though the leaves are edible when young and the flowers are useful to bees if a few plants are left to bolt. Radish is the quickest crop on any plot, which makes it a marker row between slower vegetables and a way to use the three weeks before a main crop goes in.
Radishes come from the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia, and they have been cultivated for so long that the wild ancestor is hard to pin down. The long red-and-white types were a Paris market speciality in the nineteenth century, and the name French Breakfast refers to a cafe habit rather than to any botanical distinction.
Science & Biotechnology
The pepper of a radish comes from glucosinolates, chiefly glucoraphanin and sinigrin, which break down into isothiocyanates when the root is cut or chewed. Those compounds are the reason radish tastes hot and also the reason it is studied: sulforaphane, derived from a related glucosinolate, is one of the most researched dietary isothiocyanates.
Heat in radish is a stress response. Roots grown fast in cool moist weather are mild; roots that sit in dry soil through hot days turn woody and fierce. That is why the same packet can give two completely different salads in June and August.
The other determinant is age. Radish does not hold: the root becomes pithy within days of passing its prime, and the plant redirects sugar into seed production as soon as it bolts. Picking at the right size, rather than the right date, matters more than any other decision with this crop.
Uses & Benefits
Sliced into a salad with butter and salt, or eaten whole with bread, French Breakfast is at its best raw and cold. It also pickles well, and the young leaves can go into a stir-fry or a soup. In France the roots are served with butter and sea salt as a bar snack, which is the best possible use of a radish.
In the garden the crop is a marker: sow a row of radish along a row of carrots and it will mark the line and break the soil crust before the carrots are up. It also works between slower brassicas, in containers, and in a polytunnel over winter. Commercially the variety is a bunching radish, sold with the leaves on, which is how it should be bought.
Growing from Seed
Sow direct where the roots are to grow, 1 cm deep, 2-3 cm apart in rows 15 cm apart, from March onward. Radish does not transplant well, so modules are a waste of time. Germination takes four to seven days at 15-18°C.
Sow small quantities every two to three weeks rather than a long row at once, since the roots pass their best within a week. Water steadily: dry spells make the roots split and turn hot. Thin to 4 cm to give each root room. Pull when the shoulder is 2 cm across, which for this variety is around 25 days. In hot weather sow in light shade, or the plants will bolt before the root fills.
Our Take
The fastest crop in the catalogue and the one that teaches a new grower how quickly a garden can produce something worth eating.
Related Reading
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