How to grow horseradishes

Horseradish is a hardy perennial grown for its pungent root, dug, peeled, and grated into vinegar for the sharp condiment familiar from a jar. The plant throws up large leaves a foot or more long each spring and asks for little once established: deep, moist, loamy soil in full sun and a season mostly left alone. Most gardeners plant root cuttings called sets in early spring, and because the plant channels most of its growth into the root through late summer and fall, harvest waits until close to the first hard frost.

The hardest part of growing horseradish is containing it once established. University of Minnesota Extension recommends waiting three to four years before replanting horseradish in the same spot, and University of Illinois Extension explains why: the plant spreads underground well beyond where it was originally planted, and even a thorough dig at harvest leaves enough root fragments behind that the bed regrows on its own the next spring. A gardener who plants a single crown in a mixed vegetable bed, expecting to dig it out cleanly after one season, instead finds horseradish returning there for years, crowding out whatever gets planted next.