Horseradish at home: description and care

Growing horseradish on the site does not present any difficulties, especially for an experienced gardener. The plant is distinguished by its unpretentious character, and the benefits from it are so much that you simply can not do without this product in your garden.

Elementary methods of care provide you with a regular harvest, and if you care for the plant with love and attention, the result will exceed all expectations. The leaves will be large and rich green, while no pests or diseases will cause damage to the crop.

general information

Growing horseradish is a kind of tradition for Slavic farmers. After all, when the time for harvesting for the winter comes, it is this product that is most popular, and it is very convenient when it is at hand all the time, and even fresh.

Being a member of a family of cabbage plants, horseradish has large leaves and an edible root with a specific taste. The plant came to us from the Mediterranean. Can grow both in the garden areas, and in a wild way. It prefers moist soil, so it can often be found near water bodies.

The peculiarity of the plant is not only its spicy taste, but also the saturation with useful substances. Both leaves and roots contain such elements:

• Vitamins;
• Ascorbic acid and nicotinic acid;
• carotene;
• Lysozyme;
• Phytoncides;
• Allyl mustard oil.

From the components of horseradish preparations are prepared for the treatment of colds, influenza, for the prevention of scurvy, inflammation, tumors, etc. It is possible to list all the advantages of this plant for a very long time, but today our goal is to acquaint the reader with the rules for caring for the plant.

Horseradish cultivation

The plant is well tolerated frost and easily hibernates without harm to the crop. Not transplanting, you can grow it up to ten years. But still the most saturated taste is a young plant. A very beneficial factor is that whatever your soil on the site, you can grow horseradish everywhere.

Cultivation and care in this case will not be very different from the fertile land, where everything is growing by itself. The same can be said about lighting. He will be approached by a shadow, a sun, and a penumbra. If there is a choice, it is recommended to plant the plant in the penumbra with a moist kidney, where humus is present. Well, horseradish refers to the replenishment of organic fertilizers. For this purpose, manure and peat can be used. And if you add a mineral complex later, it will even better strengthen the plant. Although even without special feeding it will grow, just not as fluffy as it could be. To get the roots you need to wait for the autumn, and only then dig out the bush.

Preparation

In order to plant new bushes of such plants as horseradish, the conditions of cultivation which we describe, we need to prepare the planting material. The seed method is not applied, since the plant very rarely gives seeds. Ogorodniki prefer the cuttings method. Cuttings should be from twenty to thirty centimeters long with a stem not less than a centimeter in diameter. Choose only strong roots, removing all unnecessary parts.

After you have typed the right amount of cuttings, tie them into a bundle and place them in a cool place for storage until spring. It can be a basement or a barn. It is recommended that the roots be sprinkled with sawdust or sand so that root development does not begin before they are planted in the soil.

With the onset of spring, the cuttings should be moved to a warmer place and covered with a damp cloth. It is also possible to plant cuttings in the greenhouse. Immediately before planting, it is necessary to prepare the stalk. For this, it is necessary to cut the upper part at a right angle, and the lower one - diagonally. As soon as the stalk, planted in the soil, shoots, it is important to remove them in the middle part of the plant. The upper sprouts subsequently turn into leaves, and the lower ones into roots. If this is not done, then the plant will be too branched.

Landing

By the way, industrial horseradish cultivation is almost the same as home production. Only the scale is different. To plant the cuttings, you need to prepare a place in advance.

• You can plant cuttings in the middle of spring, but you can do it in the summer.
• Dig up the earth to the depth of the spade bayonet, adding fertilizers. You can sprinkle humus, and also add mineral fertilizers.
• Pour the bed, intended for planting.
• When choosing a place, take into account the fact that beds, where tomatoes, potatoes or cucumbers used to grow, are ideal. It is also necessary to plant horseradish away from other plants, so most often it can be seen along the fence.
• Plant the stalk in a loose ground using a peg or a stick. Deepening it into the ground at an angle, pull out, and in the resulting hole put a stalk. In this case, the oblique cut appears in the ground.
• It is recommended to maintain a distance of about thirty centimeters between the bushes for normal growth and development of the plant.
• After all the cuttings were planted, tamp well the soil so that all the seedlings are well established.

Care of the plant

As already mentioned, horseradish does not require excessive care. It is necessary to weed the bed, removing the weed plants, and also loosen the soil for air access to the root system. If you notice that the ground is very dry, then you need to water the bed, because horseradish likes moisture. Diseases and pests rarely attack this plant, but sometimes it can suffer from powdery mildew or aphid. In this case, it is recommended to use standard tools to combat unwanted guests, depending on the problem.

Harvesting

Growing horseradish at the cottage is not only care, but also timely, correct harvesting. In the autumn, digging up roots for use or reproduction, you can also immediately cut through the beds. The fact that horseradish grows rapidly, and you can face an excessive amount of it, if in time not to thin and not to dig up unnecessary bushes. Therefore, when harvesting, analyze immediately what bushes can and should be removed to keep the plant within the boundaries of its territory.