Influence of Growing Media on Physiological Disorders Incidence in Oriental Radishes

Abstract

Some cultivar radishes of ‘Daikon’ or oriental radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus L.H. Bailey) have largely replaced in Spain the cultivation of turnips (Brassica napus L.). Market acceptance of these taproots can be affected by the incidence of various physiological disorders, such as the cracking, hollowness, malformation and the emission of secondary roots. We used two Korean cultivars, ‘Spring Favor’ and ‘Spring White’ in greenhouse cultivation in two production cycles, autumn-winter and spring season, in containers of 25 L filled with three substrates, perlite B12, coir dust and sand. In these experiments, designed according to a factorial program, we tried to establish the influence of cultivars, maturity stages and growing media on the incidence of mentioned physiological disorders, commercial production, taproot shape and size, and leaves dry weight. ‘Spring White’ was more susceptible to cracking and malformation than ‘Spring Favor’ while ‘Spring Favor’ showed a greater susceptibility to hollowness and secondary roots emission, ‘Spring White’ taproots were longer and less wide than ‘Spring Favor’. Over-maturity taproots did not influence on the hollowness and malformation. Among the three used substrates, perlite behaved worse in the incidence of almost all studied physiological disorders, while it seems that sand and coir dust did not adversely affect them. No many significant interactions were detected between cultivars x substrates.