Can I sow radish now?

Our black radish harvest failed this year and I'm dying for some radishes - you can't get black ones anywhere for love nor money, and the little red ones in shops are from far away and pretty disgusting. So I'm thinking of sowing some indoors, now. We have no cloches or greenhouse, so can I sow them in pots in the windowsill? Mind you our house is quite cold, about 14°C most of the day.
Thanks! Annemieke.

 

Hi,

Worth a try with a few seeds ....

 

Hi Annemieke, windowsill edibles should be fine to start around now. There is enough light so that the seedlings develop much better than anything sown earlier.

Radishes are very modest plants so hopefully will be happy and not try to flower before the roots are a nice size.

The only issue probably is lack of windowsill space once you give a little finger to the sowing beast... I usually end up having clear plastic storage boxes full of seedlings threatening to go leggy around April. They work quite nicely in a warm spot outdoors.

Could you please tell more about the black radishes? I have never come across them and they sound very interesting...

 

Yes it is amazing: no one, even in the trade, seems to have heard of winter radishes. We have been eating them for decades, but this year the mice had the seeds and my husband didn't notice till it was too late.
There is white radish, or mooli, or daikon. Sown in July/August and eaten in autumn and (early-ish) winter. They are the shape an size of carrots, and delicious. I eat them raw with my bread, but you can find plenty of recipes for them cooked as well. To me that is a waste, as you can use swede etc. for cooking.
Then the black radish, also sown in July/August. It keeps even better than the white, and we eat it (without the skin, as that is quite sharp) till about March, if kept in a cool shed. Long enough to tide us over till the reds are there.
Neither of the winter radishes likes to be stored in plastic or in the fridge, so this cool shed is important if you grow your own. Which is, apparently, the only way to get them up till now ...

 

DT Brown have got em

Radish (Winter) Black Spanish Round Seeds|D. T. Brown Vegetable Seeds

 

And so does www.gardenorganic.org.uk.