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Radish Sprouting Guide: How To Grow Radish Sprouts In A Jar (In 6 Days)
If you’re new to growing sprouts, this radish sprouting guide will help you learn with step-by-step instructions on how to grow radish sprouts in a jar.
Starting with the important step of seed sanitation, we’ll go from cleaning the radish seeds to storing their final form less than a week later.
Introduction to Radish Sprouts
What Are Radish Sprouts?
Radish sprouts are the little shoots that pop out from any one of the common radish (Raphanus sativus) varieties.
They’re one of the most nutritious types of sprouts you can grow.
They’re also some of the easiest and fastest sprouts you can grow.
Jar sprouted radish seeds are often ready to eat by day 3!
And they don’t even require direct sunlight.
Radish Sprouts Benefits
Are radish sprouts good for you?
- They’re good for you.
- They’re good for the millions in remote areas not able to access fresh vegetables.
- They’re good for this enclosed system we call, Earth.
The more of us that become home sprouters, the better.
Radish sprouts fall under the umbrella of the all-powerful cruciferous vegetable sprouts.
They offer a range of benefits. Some even unheard of in their full-grown state.
Below I list out many radish sprout nutrients, including vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients:
- Vitamins A, C, E, K, B6 and other B vitamins
- Macro-minerals: Iron, Calcium, Sodium, Sulfur, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc
- Micro-minerals: Boron, Copper, Manganese, Molybdenum, Selenium
- Enzymes
- Essential amino acids (whole radish has slightly more protein)
- Fiber (20% more fiber they say)
- Indole-3-carbinol
- Glucoraphanin and Glucosinolates (precursor to phytochemicals)
- Phytochemicals, including isothiocyanates (spiciness) and sulforaphane (same thing that makes broccoli sprouts so amazing)
From nutrition to wellness,
If you had ONE type of sprout you could grow for the rest of your life,
As you can see, radish sprouts would NOT be a bad choice.
Learning how to grow radish sprouts opens up an easy way to provide yourself and your family a large range of fresh proven beneficial properties straight from its natural food source.
Whole food vitamins are infinitely better than synthetic tablet kinds.
You know that old adage about teaching a man to fish that many think comes from the Bible but doesn’t? Like learning to pluck a fish out from the sea, learning to grow sprouts (and later on, how to grow and harvest your own sprouting seeds) is a similar concept. Sprouting gives you the ability to produce an unlimited amount of nutrient-rich food.
How To Grow Radish Sprouts: 6-Step Radish Sprouting Instructions
Radish sprouting is simple once you know the basics and have your supplies.
This radish sprouts recipe is easy to remember if you section the sprouting process into 4 main groups of actions:
Sanitize and Soak – disinfect seeds, soak overnight
Daily Rinse and Flips – Scheduled, daily rinse and drains
Location and Temperature – Air circulation, sunlight
Harvest and Storage – radish seed de-hull and final dry
You’ll first want to gather your home-sprouting supplies to make sure all’s good to go.
Jar Sprouting Supplies:
- Radish seeds – All radish varieties will sprout nicely.
- Mason jar – quart-sized + wide-mouth jars work best.
- Sprouting lid – a stainless steel mesh sprouting screen works well.
- Clean, cool water – essential
- Paper towels – for the storage prep
- Cheesecloth & Rubberbands – for the overnight soak
- Salad spinner (optional, useful) – for drying off the sprouts
- Airy, light room – usually near a window for the sunshine, but radish sprouts can be done without direct sun.
Radish Sprouts Growing Instructions:
Ready to learn how to grow radish sprouts and put it into practice? The first steps are boring, but remember how fast shoots pop out and appreciate these first necessary steps when getting started.
Proper seed sterilization is step one.
Sanitize and Soak – disinfect seeds, soak overnight
Step 1. Sanitize Your Radish Seeds
After inspecting your seeds for any debris,
After inspecting your seeds for anything that shouldn’t be there, it’s time to clean your seeds.
You’ll need your sanitizing materials (i.e. bleach or ACV and soap), a bowl or jar and cool water.
You may want to use a different jar for the soaking as you do for the sprouting, as any contamination should be dealt with before sprouting in a jar, and the cleaning prior to soaking could have left some residues on the jar.
- 1 jar for seed cleaning
- 1 jar for overnight soaking
- 1 jar for sprouting
In each instance, the jar should be sterilized.
So it’s a good idea to learn how to sterilize mason jars.
It can be done in 10 minutes.
To sterilize seeds:
- Fill up a bowl or jar to submerge seeds in with your seed cleaning solution.
- Add your seeds in to the container.
- Let the seeds soak in this seed cleaning solution for 10 minutes
- Rinse and drain them real good after 10 minutes.
- They’re now ready for soaking.
Types Of Seed Cleaning Solutions You Can Use
You can go natural here or if you have no issue with using bleach, this is the most effective.
Longtime home-sprouter and respected researcher Jed Fahey uses 1:10 bleach to water ratio for 10 minutes before a long and heavy rinse for his seed sanitization process.
He recommends that the bleach used to clean the seeds should..
- Have no extra additives.
- Contain 5-6% of the active ingredient, sodium hypochlorite.
- Be followed by a heavy rinsing (like 10 proper Rinse & Flips)
Sanitize and Soak – disinfect seeds, soak overnight
Step 2. Long-Soak The Seeds (Activates Germination)
Soaking radish seeds awakens them.
When hydrated, the radish seeds will start germinating.
An overnight soak works great. Up to 12 hours is fine, but radish seeds can do well with a short 4 or 5 hour soak too.
How to soak radish seeds in 5-steps:
- Drop seeds into their glass jar where they will soak in overnight.
- Cover the seeds with water – you don’t have to fill up the jar.
- Place a cheesecloth material over jar’s top
- Secure cheesecloth material over jar’s top with string or rubber-band (for protection and proper aeration).
- Let the seeds soak in here overnight (or anywhere from 4 to 8 hours).
Daily Rinse and Flips – Scheduled, daily rinse and drains
Step 3. Rinse and Flips PLUS Jar Rinsing Schedule
Do your first rinse and flip, then schedule out the others to ensure you always do them.
The rinse and flip is when you give the sprouting jar holding your radish seeds a proper rinse with clean, cool water.
Then you flip it over and drain the water out.
It’s good to get a good, long rinse in at least twice per day.
How To Rinse And Flip
Here’s the Rinse & Flip (water-drain) process in 4-steps:
- Fill up the jar until the water is overflowing.
- This overflow helps clean the germinating radish seeds within their mesh lid.
- Flip your jars over to drain them. You can give it some helpful shakes to fully drain, but refrain from turning them into maracas.
- Do this a few times. Minimum twice.
The RINSE & FLIP Schedule – IMPORTANT
Space the daily rinsing and draining’s out around your schedule, but try to space them out to around every 8 hours if doing it 3 times per day.
If you’re doing it twice per day, then try to balance the time in between rinse and flips each day.
Location and Temperature – Air circulation, sunlight
Step 4. Location (Find Radish Sprouting Spot)
For your sprouting location, it’s good to consider the environment’s temperature, air flow and natural lighting.
- Temperature: The ideal temp range for growing radish sprouts in quart mason jars is around 65°F to 75°F (or from 18°C to around 24°C).
- Air Flow: An airy room is essential. You can use a fan if you’re not getting enough air flow.
- Natural Lighting: Radish sprouting does not require sun. You don’t need sunshine with radish sprouts I repeat, BUT you do need an airy room with indirect light.
Lighting Tip: Something I learned from Sproutpeople is to place your jar into the final indirect light location on day 3 for the best radish sprout growth. I keep my jars covered (in a way to not affect airflow on the bottom lid) for the first 2 days, then just remove the cloth on day 3.
Beware Mold
Mold growth is the main problem that results from sprouting in a bad location. Radish sprouts are not immune to mold problems. If you see a green or black fuzz beginning to grow on your radish sprouts, to save the sprouts, throw all those parts out along with a generous portion of everything around it.
Harvest and Storage – radish seed de-hull and final dry
Step 5. Harvest (Know When Ready + De-Hull)
Harvesting the radish sprouts includes knowing when they’re ready, how to de-hull, and how to properly dry for storage. We’ll make storage be the final step, next.
By the fifth day your radish seeds should be crunch-ready radish sprouts.
When ready to harvest, in general all radish sprout types will have similar features:
- A bit over an inch long (~3cm)
- Have colored shoots
- Small leaf or two
De-Hulling The Radish Sprouts
You’ll see seed hulls still stuck onto the sprouts when they’re ready.
Many eat these, but seed hulls can contain anti-nutrients like lectins. These can be a problem for certain people.
If you prefer to not eat the seed encasings, they’re easy to remove.
To remove the radish seed hulls,
- Submerge your radish sprouts in a bowl of water.
- Gently rustle your sprouts to have most husks fall off.
- Sift them out as they float to the top.
Harvest and Storage – radish seed de-hull and final dry
Step 6. Storage (incl. Post-Harvest Sprout Drying)
After your final rinse and de-hulling, it’s time to dry the radish sprouts before storing or using.
Storing your radish sprouts properly ensures they stay nutritionally fresh and crispy throughout their whole short-lived lifespans.
5-step process on how to store your finished radish sprouts:
- The Final Rinse: Storage starts with the final rinse after the de-hull.
- The Final Drain: Additional drying methods required after the final mason jar drain:
- Salad Spinner: the best way to dry your radish sprouts
- Colander: Colanders work as a second-best if no spinner
- Paper towel: for pat-downs and safe moisture absorption material
- Air-dry: Let radish sprouts sit all day out in a non-humid, fresh, airy room
- Dry Before Storing: Try to get radish sprouts 100% dry. To do this,
- Give your finished radish sprouts a final pat-down with paper towel,
- Then let them sit in open air for a good full day.
- Storage: The key is to store DRY sprouts in an AIR TIGHT container
- Line a plastic bag with paper towels.
- Place your sprouts inside.
- Avoid packing sprouts in too tight (air circulation).
- If using a ziplock bag, gently remove as much oxygen as you can from the bag without smashing the radish sprouts.
- Refrigerate: Veggie crisper fridge section is best, but any section they won’t freeze in or be forgotten should work.
Storage Notes:
- Regularly check for any signs of mold growth on the radish sprouts.
- You may need to replace your first paper towels you used on the first day if they’ve gotten soaked with water that remained after the final pre-storage rinse and dry.
- If handled with care, you can extend the shelf life of your sprouts a bit longer, but it’s always best to eat them within the first 3 days.
BONUS: Radish Sprouts Daily Growth Tracking
Below is a photo of each day of the radish seeds sprouting.
- Notice the type of lighting the upside down mason jar sits in.
- This is ~15 grams of radish seeds in a quart-sized mason jar.
Day 1: Here’s day 1.
The seed cleaning, overnight soaking and first rinse and flip have all been done.
My boy J’s happy to see some action before day 2.
Day 2: Here’s day 2.
A few rinse and flips later.
The hydrated radish seeds have officially started germinating.
Day 3: Here’s day 3.
We’re stoked!
Doing a rinse and flip session every 8 hours.
Each rinse and flip session includes 3 proper jar rinses,
Followed by a thorough draining to get all the water I can out of the jar before leaving tilted on it’s sprouting stand again.
I’m being gentle enough here to not break the growing radish shoots while draining/drying them after the last rinse.
But each time one or two will have a shoot tip broken off, stuck in the sprouting lid mesh.
It’s not a big problem, and even those shoots that it happens to survive it just fine.
Day 4: Here’s the radish sprout growth at day 4.
They could have been harvested on day 4, but we let them grow more.
Day 5: Here’s day 5.
They were ready on day 5, but we were busy this day.
I pushed their harvesting, drying and storing until day 6.
Day 6: Here’s day 6.
We had more free time to bust out the salad spinner and big bowl for removing the radish seed hulls today on day 6.
Some stragglers grew a bit more, but the radish sprouts were more than ready to harvest yesterday (day 5).
That’s the 6 days right there!
Lastly, some precautions before sharing the Growing Instructions Card and closing this radish sprouting post out.
Below is the printable “recipe” card for these radish sprouting instructions.
How To Grow Radish Sprouts – Instructions Card
Equipment
- 1 Glass Mason Jar Wide mouth works best
- 1 sprouting lid stainless steel
- 1 sprouting jar stand can DIY this one
- 1 paper towel roll useful for drying
- ziplock bag air tight
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons radish seeds all radish varieties sprout well
- 1 drop dish soap any dish soap here
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar any fruit vinegar works
Instructions
- Step 1: Sanitize Your Radish SeedsRequires: 2 Tablespoons radish seeds, 1 drop dish soap, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar• Use a jar or bowl with a seed cleaning solution (ACV and soap).• Soak seeds for 10 minutes, then rinse and drain them extremely well and thorough prior to the initial germination-starting soak.2 Tablespoons radish seeds, 1 drop dish soap, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- Step 2: Soaking The Radish SeedsRequires: bowl or jar full of water, cheesecloth• Place seeds in a glass jar, cover with water, and soak overnight.• Cover with cheesecloth for protection and aeration.• An overnight soak is ideal, but a 4-hour soak works if short on time.
- Step 3: Rinse and Drain + Schedule• Rinse and drain the jar 2 or 3 times per day.• Then set a schedule to do it every 8 hours.• 2 times per day is 100% fine if that's more convenient for you.
- Step 4: Find A Good Location• Choose a location with a suitable temperature, good air flow, and indirect natural light.• Avoid leaving seeds too wet on the first days after draining.• Make sure there's sufficient air circulation in the room where your jars sit.
- Step 5: Harvest• When the radish shoots are 2 or 3 cm long, they're ready.• Radish sprouts will have a leaf or two at this point. • De-hull: submerge radish sprouts in bowl of water, gently rustling off the husks.
- Step 6: Storage• Rinse and thoroughly drain sprouts.• Dry more with salad spinner or colander.• Dry further by letting them sit in open air for a whole day after a final pat down. • Next, place your radish sprouts in a paper towel lined plastic bag.• Any airtight container lined with paper towels works.• The paper towels will absorb any potential droplets left behind (replace if they get wet after some time in the fridge).• Refrigerate and regularly check sprouts for any signs of mold.
Notes
- Handle your finished radish sprouts carefully to help extend their shelf life.
- Best to consume within 3 days for maximum freshness and unquestionable enjoyment.
- The indirect lighting can be held off until day 3 for radish sprouts that info is from sproutpeople.org) with sprouts
- Radish sprouts usually form their leaves by day 4 or 5.
- Always doing extra on the hygiene side of things helps keep food-borne illnesses a non-issue.
- Best to eat them raw or just lightly cooked.
What NOT To Do When Sprouting Radish
Most sprouting problems can be avoided with a thorough seed disinfecting at the first stage of the radish sprouting process.
Avoid these common radish sprouting mistakes and your sprouts will come out great:
- Inadequate Drying on “Flips” and Pre-Storage: Leaving radish seeds or sprouts too wet after rinsing can spoil them and foster mold growth.
- Wrong Radish Sunlight Requirements: Thinking you need to place them in direct sunlight (you don’t have to).
- No Real Seed-Sanitation: 10 long and deep rinses is not sanitizing enough for seeds. Not even if they’re your own radish seeds. Potential bacterias must be gotten rid with other materials (but you have many options, from bleach to hydrogen peroxide to ACV and soap and GSE).
- Mistaking Radish Sprout Root Hairs For Mold: You may mistake radish sprouts small white root hairs for mold, but mold is more fuzzy (and smells bad).
- Bad Water For The Rinse & Flips: Rinse & Flip-ing with chlorinated, fluorinated tap water.
If you do have any mold growth, make sure to sanitize that jar before sprouting another batch of seeds in it.
What Do Radish Sprouts Taste Like?
A single, tiny radish sprout is powerful enough to make you double look at what you just ate.
But no, that’s not a tiny chili pepper sprout.
It’s a radish sprout!
Radish sprouts are SPICY.
Eating a single, tiny radish sprout can be give you a full radish-spice kick.
Radish sprouts do very much still taste like radish, but they’re a whole new type of radish taste experience as opposed to biting a chunk off a whole radish.
If you’re on the fence with radish, the root vegetable, then you may not like radish sprouts either.
But if your issue is that it’s a root vegetable, then you may be able to enjoy the greatness radish offers through its above-ground grown radish sprouts!
The radish-spice scale ranges from less to more, with some being more sweet, and others more spicy.
All radish sprouts will give their own sweet-to-spicy taste experience.
I find them all to generally start sweet and then finish strong and spicy.
Like when you touch scolding hot water and the immense heat actually fools you to think its cold.
When eating a handful of radish sprouts fresh and raw, you do get a nice, real sweetness, but it’s quickly overshadowed by the spice that follows.
The Many Flavors Of Radish Sprouts
There are many radish varieties to choose from.
And all are said to grow into tasty, sweet and spicy sprouts.
You’ll have fun trying different radish sprouts out since there are so many variations to grow.
| Type of Radish | Flavor Profile |
|---|---|
| Cherriette | Sweet, small sprouts with red skin |
| Cherry Belle | Mild, crispy |
| Crimson Giant | Mild, sweet |
| Daikon Radish Sprouts | Sweet, less spice, good subtle flavor |
| De 18 Jours | Sweet, small oval-shaped sprouts |
| Early Scarlet Globe | Mild, sweet and crunchy |
| Fire and Ice | Mild and sweet |
| German Giant | Sweet, mild, crispy, red |
| Sparkler | Spicy, sweet |
| Sichuan Red Beauty | Spicy |
| Round Black Spanish | Strong, Spicy |
| Sora | Mild, sweet |
Enjoy Your Radish Sprouts!
Great you’re sprouting radish. Above are a few pointers and the step by step instructions on how to grow radish sprouts. The process is simple, but requires scheduled tending to. You can easily fit sprouting into your schedules.
It’s never too late to start learning how to sprout at home.
If you went through these radish sprouting instructions, how’d it go?
Let me know in the comments or on social.
Also reach out anytime if you have any questions about the radish sprouts or sprouting process.
Thanks for coming by the Sprouting Fam blog!
Next: How To Sprout Buckwheat Groats In Mason Jars (5-Steps)
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Sources
- Influence of Dietary Fiber… Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9141080/
- Epic Gardening: Radish Types. Retrieved from https://www.epicgardening.com/radish-types/
- Seeds of cruciferous plants contain the highest levels of isothiocyanate precursors | Jed Fahey. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/F8GJhzYeHC4?si=SqT09gMoChe8mA7i
- Radish Sprouts Nutrition Facts Benefits. Retrieved from https://www.healwithfood.org/health-benefits/radish-sprouts-nutrition-facts-benefits.php
