Can Radishes Help Keep Nutrients Out Of The Chesapeake?

Nutrient reduction efforts may have a new secret weapon: radishes. 

"From Maryland to Ohio to Iowa, farmers and scientists are taking a closer look at this vegetable’s ability to keep nutrients like calcium, phosphorus, nitrogen and sulfur in the soil where they’re valuable, and out of streams, rivers and bays where they become pollutants," Take Part reported. 

Scientists at the University of Maryland are testing whether radishes can be useful in keeping nutrients in runoff out of the Chesapeake Bay. 

"On a vacant lot in Northeast Baltimore, a researcher is testing the potential of daikon or forage radishes to turn badly compacted city dirt into a natural sponge for rainwater," the Baltimore Sun reported. 

Radishes grow strong roots that can dig into the earth and prevent topsoil from moving out of place, the report said. That could help keep nutrients from moving into the water. Plus, the roots provide aeration for the soil. 

Stuart Schwartz, a scientist at the University of Maryland, "hopes the experiment, dubbed B'more Rad, can find out whether cities could benefit from a plant that farmers in Maryland and elsewhere are increasingly using as a cover crop to reduce polluted runoff from their fields," the Baltimore Sun reported. 

One of the radish's most helpful properties is its hunger for nitrogen. 

"The radish not only loosens the ground, Weil said, it 'fixes' or consumes nitrogen in the soil that might get washed off by rain or snow melt. The nutrients are then returned to the soil to fertilize the next crop as the radish plant dies and decays," the report said. 

Radishes are already marketed for their properties related to nitrogen. 

Seed dealer Tillage Radish says on its website that the "taproot will scavenge significant levels of nutrients (N), (P), (Ca), (S) and many other yield-advancing nutrients with a wicking effect up to 5 feet deep, making it available for the next crop."

To read more about nutrients on Water Online, click here. "While regulations demand that wastewater treatment plants get nutrients out of the water, the world’s food supply may demand more — that we recover and reuse them," Water Online reported.

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