[Sca-cooks] New Scientific findings about mustard

[Sharon Gordon]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ARS News Service" <NewsService at ars.usda.gov>
To: "ARS News subscriber" Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 9:10 AM
Subject: Scientists "Smear" Pests With Mustard


> STORY LEAD:
> Scientists "Smear" Pests With Mustard
> __________________________________________________
>
> ARS News Service
> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
> Jan Suszkiw, (301) 504-1630, jsuszkiw at ars.usda.gov
> October 12, 2004
> __________________________________________________
>
> Got crop pest problems? Spread some mustard on them--the plant, that is,
not the condiment.
>
> Agricultural Research Service scientists are growing stands of cultivated
mustard and other Brassica species as a possible alternative to using
chemical fumigants to rid crop fields of nematodes, weed seeds and other
soilborne pests.
>
> The mustards' "biofumigant" effect is attributed to isothiocyanates,
chemical byproducts of the plants' decomposition that make the soil toxic to
nearby pests. Indeed, farmers in parts of the United States and Europe have
sought to exploit this phenomenon by preceding their crops with stands of
mustard, rapeseed and other Brassica species.
>
> But there's still much to learn about how these biofumigant plants control
pests, the conditions Brassicas prefer and their cumulative effects on the
soil environment, according to Rick Boydston, an agronomist in ARS'
Vegetable and Forage Research Unit at Prosser, Wash.
>
> Since 2000, Boydston has led a team of ARS and Washington State University
scientists in monitoring the mustards' biofumigant effects in greenhouse and
field studies. Eventually, the resulting information could lead to new
cropping systems that use mustards better, or pinpoint their limitations.
>
> For example, scientists are checking the sprouting ability of redroot
pigweed seed that has been dug out from beneath stands of white mustard,
sorghum-sudangrass, winter wheat or an oat-hairy vetch mixture. Results thus
far indicate delayed germination only. In contrast, 99 percent of the
redroot pigweed seeds from fumigated plots didn't germinate at all.
>
> In greenhouse studies, scientists monitored the effects of crushed
seedmeal from brown mustard and field pennycress on potted irises and three
pests: chickweed, prickly lettuce and root-knot nematodes. The irises
suffered no ill effects, but more than half of the weeds failed to sprout,
and nematode numbers fell by 70 to 80 percent.
>
> A longer article describing these and other mustard studies appears in
this month's issue of Agricultural Research magazine, on the World Wide Web
at:
> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct04/pest1004.htm
>
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
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