Horseradish, Brassicaceae Armoracia rusticana, has glucosinolates in the leaves. I am wondering if the leaves, that are incorporated back into the soil, would have any detrimental effects on the horseradish plants.
Hi Dan,
Glucosinolates have mainly detrimental effect on insects, bacteria and fungi, but in soil they could indirectly affect the growth of some plants, by impacting the mycorrhizal fungi communities.
I hope it helps.
Hi Francois,
Thank you for your answer. Yes, that makes sense. I know that mycorrhiza cannot grow with horseradish, so the glucosinolates probably have something to do with that.
We grow 600 acres of horseradish annually and the yields have really dropped off in the fields that have had horseradish on them several times in the past. We grow the horseradish for 2 years. I am going to try removing the old horseradish leaves from the previous year, in the fields that have horseradish in its second year, to see if it helps in reducing the glucosinolates. I am also going to try removing the leaves from the field at harvest time as well because when we harvest the horseradish the leaves get raked out of the rows and windrows of horseradish leaves are left in the field. Our rotation here is 2 years of horseradish followed by 3 years of wild rice and then plant back into horseradish the Fall of the 3rd year of wild rice. The wild rice is of great benefit for killing off the remaining horseradish roots in the soil and thus controlling verticillium. But, this is also very detrimental to our soil biology.
Thanks!
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