Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
HARVEST
Harvest seed in mid to late summer. Ripe seedpods explode, releasing their seed to the
ground, so harvest before pods attain full ripeness. Processing instructions as for
Brassica oleracea
.
SELECTION CHARACTERISTICS
• yield
• rapid growth
• rapid, uniform ripening of seed
• late flowering (when growing for leaf use)
White mustard is also known as
Gelbsenf
(yellow mustard) in German, for its brilliant yellow flowers.
DISEASES AND PESTS
White mustard is susceptible to many of the same pests and diseases as other
brassicas (see
Brassica oleracea
).
CULTIVATION HISTORY
The wild form of the plant is spread across the Mediterranean region, the
Middle East, and the Caucasus as a weed and ruderal species and has over time been brought to other
regions. The crop form of white mustard is mostly grown from Europe through the Middle East to In-
dia. In southern and eastern Asia, young plants are used as a leaf vegetable. Prehistoric finds in
present-day Iraq are evidence of the long history of white mustard as a crop plant. The plant came to
Europe in the Middle Ages and was used as a leaf vegetable and as a medicinal. Intensive breeding of
white mustard is a recent development in the UK and Canada.
RADISH
Raphanus sativus
The species
Raphanus sativus
can be divided broadly into two categories: small-rooted summer
radishes (var.
sativus
) and longer-rooted winter radishes (var.
niger
). Summer radishes are most com-
monly white, pink, or red, but there are also varieties with yellow, gray, violet, or black skin. Winter
radishes are white, violet, brown, or black. The daikon, a type of winter radish, can grow to be 20 in.
(50 cm) long yet remains crunchy; it is almost always white in the USA and Europe, but in China a
red-fleshed variety ('Hsin-li-mei', meaning “beautiful deep down inside”) is also very popular.
