The Organic
Revival
Vegetables · Root

Growing radish

Raphanus sativus · also called Mooli, Muj (Kashmiri)A quick cool season root crop sown straight into ridges. Asiatic types take more heat; European types need cool weather, so the right variety lets radish be grown for much of the year.

Cold desert: Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Includes AI suggestions where no published guide covers a detail
A pile of fresh white radish roots (mooli) with their green leaf stalks
Photo: Thamizhpparithi Maari · CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance

Radish in the Cold desert

  • Season

    Summer, in the short frost free months3

  • Sowing to last picking

    European types are ready in about a month; larger Asiatic types take up to two months (AI suggestion).

    No published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

  • Sow

    March to August3

  • First harvest

    25 to 45 days after sowing

    No published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Across India

When to sow it

Twelve growing regions, January to December. Your region comes first.

Wait until March

The next sowing here is March to August.

Sowing now in:Sub-tropical foothillsNorth-west plainsGangetic plainsNorth-east hills and valleysArid westCentral plateauDeccan plateauWest coast
  • Sow
  • Harvest
  • Today
Cold desertLadakh, Lahaul and SpitiTemperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, Dehradun
Compare all 12 regions
Temperate HimalayaKashmir valley, Shimla, KulluSub-tropical foothillsJammu, Kangra, DehradunNorth-west plainsPunjab, Haryana, DelhiGangetic plainseastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal plainsNorth-east hills and valleysAssam, Meghalaya, SikkimArid westRajasthan, Kutch, north GujaratCentral plateauMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, VidarbhaDeccan plateauinterior Maharashtra, Telangana, north KarnatakaSouth interiorBengaluru, Mysuru, interior Tamil NaduWest coastKerala, Goa, KonkanEast coastcoastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra
Today
See the dates as a table
RegionSowNurseryTransplantHarvest
Cold desertMarch to August
Temperate HimalayaJuly to OctoberMarch to August
Sub-tropical foothillsMarch to May (Pusa Chetki)September to October (Pusa Reshmi, Minowase)End of November to January (Japanese White, Arka Nishant, Minowase, Pusa Desi, Pusa Himani)Mid August to November (Japanese White, Minowase)March to June (Pusa Himani)August to September (Pusa Reshmi, Japanese White, Minowase)
North-west plainsJanuary to February (Pusa Himani)Second half of March (Punjab Pasand)April to August (Pusa Chetki)Mid September to October (Punjab Safed Mooli 2, Punjab Pasand, Japanese White)November to December (Japanese White)February to AprilEnd of April to MayMay to SeptemberOctober to DecemberDecember to January
Gangetic plainsEarly April to mid August (Pusa Chetki)Mid August to mid October (Pusa Desi)Mid September to mid November (Pusa Reshmi)Mid October to mid December (Japanese White)Mid October to mid February (Pusa Himani)Early May to SeptemberLast week of September to early DecemberMid December to early MarchMid February to mid April
North-east hills and valleysAugust to September (early varieties)October to November (late varieties)
Arid west1 September to 1 December
Central plateau1 September to 1 DecemberMid March to mid August (Pusa Chetki)
Deccan plateauSeptember to mid December
South interiorSeptemberJune to JulyApril to June
West coastJune to January
East coastSeptember

From seed to harvest

One season, day by day

Days from sowing

  1. Before sowing

    Well rotted farmyard manure or compostNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    2 to 3 kg per square metre · Mix into the bed before sowing. · Field preparation

  2. Day 0

    Sow

  3. Day 3 to 6

    Seeds come up1,3Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

  4. Day 25 to 45

    First pickingNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

  5. Day 30 to 60

    Last pickingNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Water right after sowing and then every 4 to 6 days. Dry, windy air dries the soil fast; keep it evenly moist or roots turn hot and woody.No published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

What it needs

Soil, sun and warmth

  • Soil pH1,2

    5.5 to 6.8

    Light, friable sandy loam rich in humus. Heavy clay soils give rough, misshapen roots with many small side roots.

  • SunlightNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

    At least 6 hours a day

    Full sun. Grows in light shade but the roots stay smaller.

  • Temperature1,2,3Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

    Grows best at 10 to 15 °C

    Takes light frost.

    Monthly temperatures for the Cold desert aren't in the library yet.

Water and feeding

WateringNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Water right after sowing and then every 4 to 6 days. Dry, windy air dries the soil fast; keep it evenly moist or roots turn hot and woody.

WeedingNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Weed and thin once at two to three weeks, and earth up any roots pushing out of the soil.

WhenWhatHow muchHow
Field preparationWell rotted farmyard manure or compost2 to 3 kg per square metreMix into the bed before sowing.

SourcesNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Varieties and yield

Typical rangeNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

10 to 20 tonnes a hectare

Yields vary with the plot, the seed and the season.

Good neighboursNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Keep it away from

Pests and diseasesNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Organic and cultural controls only.

  • Pest

    Flea beetle

    Signs

    Small round holes in young leaves.

    What to do

    • Cover young seedlings with fine net.

    Prevention

    • Rotate with crops outside the cabbage family.

  • Disease

    Alternaria blight

    Signs

    Brown spots with dark rings on older leaves.

    What to do

    • Remove and destroy spotted leaves.

    Prevention

    • Save seed only from healthy plants.

Seed and the season's end

Saving seed1,2Part of this comes from the sources cited. The rest is an AI suggestion.

Raise roots as for the market, select true to type roots and replant them as stecklings at 60 by 60 cm. Remove off types three times: at the leafy stage, at flowering and at maturity.

When the seed is ready

Plants flower in March and April and the pods are ready to harvest in May and June. Keep a seed crop 1,600 m from other radish varieties.

Cleaning the seed

Dry the ripe pods in the sun and thresh them. The pods are tough, so threshing often has to be repeated.

Store fully dried seed in a sealed container in a cool, dry place.

After the last pickingNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

Dig in the leaves or feed them to livestock before the autumn frost.

Leaves left after harvest can be fed to cattle or composted.

Rotation

Fits short vegetable rotations, for example potato, then muskmelon, then radish.

Growing under coverNo published guide covers this for the Cold desert, so this is an AI suggestion. Check it with local advice before you rely on it.

A low plastic tunnel lets sowing start a few weeks earlier in spring and extends the crop into autumn.

Sources

Where this comes from

Our team has checked this guide against the sources at the end of the page.Reviewed by our team on 13 November 2026.

These published guides are the sources. Where none of them covers a detail for this region, the page shows an AI suggestion and labels it.

  1. 3Production Technology of Vegetables and Flowers (VSF-231), Part I: Vegetable production (Radish; classification of vegetables)CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur (Department of Vegetable Science and Floriculture)Read the source
  2. 4Horticulture: Vegetables: RadishTNAU Agritech Portal, Tamil Nadu Agricultural UniversityRead the source
  3. 7Radish: planting (land preparation, season, method of planting)National Horticulture BoardRead the source
  4. 8Radish: varietiesNational Horticulture BoardRead the source

AI Farm Manager · In development

Plan this crop on your land

AI Farm Manager will turn guides like this one into a plan for your own plot. It doesn't make plans yet.

See how it will work