horseradish

Oh, I don't know... I've seen a friend's 5x5 foot horseradish patch spread to at least 3 times that size! But if you harvest it regularly, yes, it's pretty easy to control. Hard to *eliminate*, but easy to control.

The attractive thing about this idea with the pipes is being able to grow long, relatively straight roots... easier to harvest and to process! I like the idea of putting them in a half-barrel planter, too.

Shoe, you never believe what my DH came up with. He wants to plant these roots in the bathtub. LOL It's not a crazy as it sounds, though because the tub is in the back yard. We took it out of the house last spring. It's just sitting in the back yard waiting for us to use it when we expand our pond. In the meantime he decided why not use it for horseradish. I told him if we do that, we should put gravel and sand in the bottom, maybe 6 inches or so, for drainage. How deep do the roots go? So I guess we'll have a tub garden instead of a pipe garden?:)

Unobstructed, you can expect your happy roots to grow well over a foot. I'd plant a bathtub too if I had any lying around the yard!

I've never seen horseradish growing, so I'm wondering how big and or comspicuous is this going to look from the street? We already get strange looks from people in their cars.:)

Mine gets around 2 feet tall, but that is a well-established bed, and it's a very attractive plant except for where it gets riddled by flea beetles (i think that's the culprit, maybe asparagus beetles).

Go for it. As a matter of fact, my neighbor dropped off his bathtub over her this past summer. It is a big round one and I took it thinking of either making it into a mini-pond for our geese OR turning it into a giant home-made earthbox! At this point in time I've decided to fill it with the spent potting mixes from our greenhouse and potted plants, add some additional amendments and use it for both root crops (carrots come to mind!) as well as some herbs and whatever else I can fit in there. (That round tub must be five feet across!)

As for gravel in the bottom, that shouldn't be necessary as long as the tub is level and the drain opening is unclogged. Just make sure you have a well-draining soil mix in there and you should be fine!

Shoe (who keeps looking for horseradish roots at the store and hasn't seen any yet; wish me luck!)

Shoe when you see some, (roots) let me know - please.

We went looking for them at HEB and couldn't find them, although we did find the price sign. So we asked at the cash register (not the best place) and somebody had to go look for them. They were behind the ginger roots. So you might try there.

Shoe, I like the pond idea personally.:) Hopefully that's what this tub will eventually become. Although if we do that we're going to have alot of dirt full of horseradish roots to put someplace.

A friend that grew up in Pasadena said his DD planted his asparagus bed in the old tub. He kept it going for years. Just make sure the drain end is lower so water won't pool in the other end.

Ok Podster. I hope we can planted these this weekend. The weather has been so nice and we shouldn't be wasting it.:) I am very anxious to start pruning my roses too, but I guess it's too early.

Not a rose person but I don't think you are too early on the pruning. I have heard to do so in this zone after Valentines Day. Might near there aren't we?!?? :))

Yes indeedy we are Podster. No wonder I'm in the mood to trim roses.:)

Planted horseradish two years ago in wooden tubs in the front of the house. They "escaped" as the bottoms of the tubs were more rotten than I expected and the roots grew threw them into the ground. My wife got tired of the two to three foot leaves at the entrance of the house and when I went to move the tubs, they fell apart. I salvaged all the horseradish from inside the tubs and moved them to the back yard. This last summer we were surprised to see horseradish growing where the tubs had been in the front. I kept pulling and they kept coming back :)

Also horseradish will flower but don't expect a bouquet. The flowers are small and white.

A note on preparing horseradish to eat. The hottest part is near the top of the root with decreasing heat as you move down. There are plenty of recipes on the web and most call for adding vinegar. The timing after grating apparently will also determine the heat of the end product. I'll be digging up some in about three weeks assuming the ice has melted and the ground thawed.

Thanks, escubed. Good info to know! (Especially about the hottest part!)

Shoe

I saw horseradish at walmart last night. Wanted to ask if anyone has tried it in hot dry climate. Only plants I was ever around my grandparents grew and they lived near Yellowstone Park. It came back every year so I know it's cold hardy ;-)

Yes Escubed, my DH will be glad to know where the hottest part is and how to preserve that HOT. The hotter the better for him.:)

Grammy ~ I would bet it would grow better for you in fall, winter, spring.

escubed is right, if you want super hot horseradish don't add the vinegar until about 3 minutes after grating/processing. The vinegar stops the enzyme action when it is added that is why you don't want to add it right away if you want hot.

Not growing any here even though critter has tried to pawn errr gift me some several times!
-Kim

Isn't it interesting to see the many different ways that folks use horseradish? I've never added vinaegar to it.
We usually add fresh grated to a Bechamel or other cream sauce. Goes well with potato dumplings and nut loaf.

The vinegar is for preserving the horseradish. That kind of horseradish is especially good for making real cocktail sauce. In traditional New Orleans restaurants, cocktail sauce is something you make yourself, to your taste at the table. They bring you a little pleated paper cup full of fresh horseradish ( the kind with vinegar) and bottles of the other ingredients - ketchup, hot pepper sauce, lemon, mustard and you mix it to taste. The most abundant ingredient is the horseradish, not the ketchup. Yum. I would not ever put plain ketchup on shrimp or oysters. Yetch! It is pretty hard to find real cocktail sauce in New Mexico. I do grow horseradish, though.
I also like a horseradish sauce with prime rib, which I eat regularly every five years or so.

Ooooh I love horseradish in my cocktail sauce. Is is hard to find decent seafood there? I buy a brand of cocktail sauce with horseradish. Bennetts it is an acceptable substitute.

Bought a root at Central Market yesterday. Cut into 3-4" pieces and planted them.

I remember growing and grinding them as a boy in MN. Step-dad brought home a peck of tops from a processing facility. We never were short of it and gave many jars away.

Looking forward to harvesting later this year.
At $5 per root, should be a profitable crop if they all come up.

"Rooting" you on, Bubba! *grin

Hope you have a great crop! (Take pics if you can!)

Shoe

Thought I'd tempt you with a just a couple of pictures from last year. For some reason I don't have any shots of the whole plant in all of its glory but you'll get the idea.

The flowers.

Pretty bloom it has... will it also spread by seed?

Escubed, thanks for the pictures. I don't think I've ever seen pictures of horseradish. It looks very pretty.

Horseradish has big shiny leaves that look rather tropical to me. I think it is quite attractive, but just be sure to plant it in a bucket or something. I have been trying to irradicate it from my lily and herb bed for 2 or 3 years. It spreads like crazy whenever you dig some out.

Yes, we've discussing how to contain it. DH wants to plant it in an old bathtub.

Jill... I'd love a start of horseradish!!!

I just bought a big good size root from safeway today. The root already has leaves coming out of the top. I will plant the root tomorrow. I plan to plant the root in an wine barrel (25 gal.) cut in half.

I should have some too when the ground thaws. That reminds me; I should go put my ear to the beehive to see whether my ladies survived a month of below-freezing temps.

They are! I can hear a faint hum under the top lid. Bees seem like such a miracle to me.

Shucks. I looked at the health food store today in Asheville but the horseradish didn't look like bothering with...

summer... YAY on the bees! I'm afraid to try them.

oh, darius, they're the best! i don't even harvest the honey, just like having them around.

you get stung occasionally but it's not the end of the world. my record is 11 stings but i was doing something incredibly stupid.

but i barely react to bee stings, and i'm pretty johnny-on-the-spot at getting that stinger out. mosquito bites bother me more believe it or not. i went to the doctor once about one! thought i had lyme disease. very embarrassing.

Darius, I'm afraid mine may finally have been eradicated from the front landscape bed -- good news for me but not for you. Hopefully somebody (or some grocery store) will have a root for you!

Thanks anyway, Jill. I'm sure I can find some...

summer... I'm highly allergic to bee stings. Maybe I can find a neighbor who still keeps bees. A friend sent me this article on bees this morning. I hope you can open it... If not, I copied the text.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?ex=1173243600&en=19e542fb52509696&ei=5070&emc=eta1

darius - thank you for the link.

I lost my other hive last year but it seemed likely that something happened within the hive, like the bee ball was too small to survive a bad cold snap.
That NYT article, though, just adds to my fears taht we cannot continue to force ever-larger monocultures that cannot roll with the punches.