Is it too soon to plant radishes in an unheated hoop house?
Question:
We have an unheated hoop house that I’m wondering if it’s too soon to be planting radishes in now? I know they are a cool weather crop, but is this too soon?
Answer:
It does depend a bit on your hoop house set up, but if you can consistently keep the temperature inside above 40 (at the low end of optimal for radish), you could certainly put some radishes in. As I’m sure you know, the trick to the unheated hoop house is maintaining consistent temps, but if you close the vents on colder days and possibly give the radish a nice little mulch blanket with straw or the like, you will probably be fine. I can’t guarantee we won’t have a sudden deep freeze, of course, but that seems to happen less and less as climate change progresses and radishes are pretty tolerant of light freezes (especially mulched). NB: do keep an eye on the temps on warmer days, as the inside of hoop houses and greenhouses can get surprisingly warm surprisingly fast in early spring.
Happy gardening.