Radish Noir Gros Rond D'hiver - Winter Radish

The Gros Rond d’Hiver Black Radish is a winter radish with a large, rounded root, black on the surface and white at the heart. This old French selection offers firm, crunchy, and aromatic flesh, pleasantly pungent, perfect grated in rémoulade, in thin slices with salt, or cooked like a turnip. Our organic seeds allow for easy cultivation of this hardy root vegetable in the kitchen garden, as a late-summer crop for late-season harvests. With very good storage qualities, it naturally finds its place in gardens focused on food self-sufficiency and winter vegetables.

The Gros Rond d’Hiver black radish belongs to the Brassicaceae family. The species Raphanus sativus, the cultivated radish, is known by many common names: cultivated radish, black radish, winter radish, Spanish radish, horseradish, cultivated horseradish, or even Parisian horseradish. The full Latin name of the variety is Raphanus sativus var. niger J. Kern ‘Noir Rond’. The species is believed to have originated around the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor, where black radishes were already consumed in antiquity, before spreading to Europe and Asia.
This cultivar, non-hybrid, is an old French selection with reproducible seeds.

It is an annual to biennial herbaceous plant that grows in a rosette. It does not sucker or produce offshoots: everything is concentrated on a fleshy taproot shaped like a spinning top, 8 to 10 cm wide, with a matt black skin, sometimes slightly rough, and white, dense, and very crunchy flesh. Compared to pink spring radishes, this winter form offers firmer flesh, a more pronounced flavour, and above all, excellent storage ability for several months. Its growth is rapid in cool soil: depending on the sowing date and climate, it takes on average 10 to 12 weeks between summer sowing and autumn harvest. The leaves are edible and can be used in soups.
Like many black radishes, this variety belongs to the so-called "niger" group, cultivated for centuries; it has long been credited with virtues for supporting the liver and gallbladder, and its juice was already used, in the Middle Ages, in various popular medicinal preparations.

With a pungent flavour, it is enjoyed cooked, like turnips, or raw, like carrots. The winter radish has many virtues: it contains vitamin C and sulphur, but also phosphorus and magnesium. It is antiscorbutic and diuretic and is recommended for people suffering from liver and gallbladder issues.

Harvest and storage: It begins from late autumn to early winter, as soon as the roots have reached 8 to 10 cm in diameter. They are preferably lifted in dry weather, gently loosening the soil with a garden fork to avoid damaging them. Radishes intended for storage are gathered before heavy frosts: prolonged freezing causes them to split or rot. Cut the foliage flush with the collar, without cutting into the root, allow them to dry for a few hours out of direct sunlight, then store the finest specimens, free from damage and disease.

The gardener's little tips: To limit attacks from flea beetles or cabbage root flies, place an insect-proof mesh just after sowing or alternate rows of radishes with salads, spinach or herbs, which confuse pests.
Strict crop rotation is also a real gardener's "trick": do not replant radishes, cabbages or other brassicas in the same spot for 3 or 4 years, to reduce the risk of soil-borne diseases.

Organic or "AB" seeds come from plants grown in organic farming (without the use of pesticides). They undergo no treatment after harvest. These seeds are suitable for organic market gardening.