Giddy Up, Horseradish!

This is the story of how I started out with one horseradish plant (Armoracia rusticana) and ended up with over 20. Horseradish is one of the few condiments that I can’t do without when eating raw clams or oysters. It’s also a delicious compliment to roast beef or a thick, juicy slice of prime rib.

It’s a hardy perennial down to zone 2 and, as I found out, can be invasive if you aren’t a big horseradish fan as any little piece of root regenerates itself into an entirely new plant. I found this out when moving my original mother plant to a new area in the garden–baby horseradish are still popping up yearly where the original was because I don’t dig deep enough to get all the pieces. The roots also snap fairly easily, so while I may have gotten the main root, some offshoots always remain. It is tolerant of both frequent and infrequent watering, and tolerates a wide range of soil acidity and conditions (had it in both sandy soil and compost heavy soils–but sandy soil makes it easier to harvest.) I’ve had it in both sun and shade and the only thing that seems to bother it (but not hinder it) is the caterpillars (cabbageworms) of those white butterflies that are often fluttering around my garden.

One thing to note is that there is a plant called “curly dock” that looks very similar to horseradish–same leaf shape and root system. The way to tell the difference, aside from the hallmark pungency of grated horseradish, is that the roots of the curly dock has yellow flesh, while horseradish roots are white fleshed. They also have different flowers.