Action White Mustard: Fast Growth, Nematode Control & Reliable Flowering

0:00 [Music]

0:05 Okay. So, this is action white mustard. So you know, green cover, we carry several different mustards. The white mustards tend to be kind of the middle of the flowering in terms of timing in the spring. So, your brown

0:18 Mustards are normally first, then your white mustards, and then like our Florida broadleaf mustard. This particular plot of the action white is kind of new to green cover this year. So Keith, why don't you give us some of the story behind it?

0:31 Yeah, so this is a brand new genetics to us and really kind of to the US as well. The Europeans have been breeding brassicas in general, but mustards and radishes specifically for the high glucosinylate levels. They've been doing

0:47 That much longer than we have here in the US. So these are European genetics that we brought over. We have a company in the Pacific Northwest that is growing this particular variety for us. I really like it. It's not quite as tall maybe as the

1:02 Kodiak Brown, but I think it's a little more dense. Certainly just as good at weed control a little bit later season, but it's going to have a higher level of these glucosinylates, which is that chemical compound that's helping suppress weeds, helping to control the.

1:19 Nematodes. And so we really like the looks of this. We're going to continue to have this grown for us out in the Pacific Northwest and bring it in for these specialty applications. The other thing I want to mention about mustard, you know, the different brassicas have

1:34 Different triggers for them to go reproductive. Some of them have to vernalize, go dormant and then come out of that. Some of them are photoperiod sensitive like radishes, but mustards simply accumulate growing degree days. And so it doesn't matter.

2:04 Them great for the beneficial insects. But it also means they grow fast. They're not waiting around to break dormancy. They're not waiting around to see what that photoperiod is. They are just growing. And so we see the most aggressive, quickest growth of

2:20 Any brassica with the mustards, which is why they're such good weed control options.

2:26 Yep. Yeah. I mean, this plot, we're right at 60 days here. So we probably started seeing the first flowers around 30 days, probably hit that full bloom.

2:34 Around 45, and now we're off to the races and have been blooming. And we'll, it'll continue to bloom for a while yet before they finish out their life cycle. And if you're an organic producer or just someone who wants to cut down on their herbicides, a spring-planted mix.

2:48 With a lot of mustard, I think this would roll pretty well. These are pretty big hollow stems.

2:54 You know, they're going to, when you hit this with a roller, it's going to snap that. It's going to terminate this pretty well. And even if we were doing this a couple weeks ago, in time to plant corn in a timely fashion, I think this would have crimped really well and could have given us a good weed control mat ahead of planting corn or soybeans.