Sight Lines: Root Issues

Perspectives: Research and Creative Activities at SIUC, Spring 2008

:: sight lines ::

Root Issues

The flowers of these horseradish plants look the same, but the leaves tell a different story. S. Alan Walters, who heads the horseradish breeding program at SIUC, hopes that cross-pollination of the flowers will produce seeds for hybrid plants that will yield high-quality roots and a lot of them (a trait in the plant with the big leaves), while resisting diseases that cause root discoloration (a trait in the plant with the small leaves).

The development of new horseradish cultivars is a high-stakes race for the crop's top producers, clustered in the Metro East/Collinsville (Ill.) area across from St. Louis. "A lot of the horseradish cultivars they have now are starting to lose yield and quality characteristics," says Walters, an associate professor of plant, soil, and agricultural systems.

The breeding cycle for improved cultivars is at least a four-year process, carried out in cooperation with producers and growers, that can start with as many as 3,500 different lab-grown seedlings, winnowed down over the years to three or four eventually chosen for commercial production.

—by K. C. Jaehnig