Horseradish is a perennial herb of the Cabbage family. Differs fleshy thick root, straight branched stem, large leaves. Homeland horseradish - Southeastern Europe, today distributed in Asia, Europe (except tropical areas) and America. In the wild form grows on the banks of rivers, in damp places.
Did you know? Horseradish was eaten in ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, not only as a seasoning, but also as a separate dish. It was believed that he should temper the body and spirit of the warriors, saturate him with energy.
Landing dates
One of the most popular questions that interest summer people - when they put horseradish. The best period for disembarking will be March-April. 2 weeks before, the seedlings are taken from the pantry or cellar, placed in a warm place and covered with a cloth moistened with water or peat from above. When buds sprout, cuttings should be planted in the already prepared beds. 5-6 plants can be placed for 1 m², the distance between them should not exceed 40 cm, and between rows - 70 cm. It also matters the purpose of horseradish planting. If you want to get a good harvest, before planting you need to remove the buds that have appeared from the middle of the cutting, leaving the bottom to form roots and the top to form leaves. In order to get high-quality planting material in the future, cuttings should be planted with all the buds.
The choice of location and preparation of the beds
For horseradish is ideal for the site on which at least the last few years, nothing grown. Favorable soil will be fertile, but this does not apply to heavy clay beds, which will make horseradish dry and with a bitter aftertaste. A good harvest can be harvested on light soils: loams, chernozems, sandy loam soil. Horseradish does not like the shadows, the site should be sunny.
Important! Horseradish grown on the right bed, in addition to good taste, has useful properties: improves the digestive tract, kills bacteria, treats hypertension, reduces blood sugar levels.Prepare the bed should be fertilized, digging the soil after making the composition, then it is aligned and watered abundantly. The first option: use 2 tbsp. l nitrofoski on 1 bucket of humus and a small amount of wood ash. The second option: heavy clay soils are required to make manure, sand and peat, or the composition of 1 tbsp. l ammonium nitrate, 30 g of potassium salt and 30 g of superphosphate per 1 m².
The best predecessors for horseradish
Growing horseradish should occur at a suitable site. Early soil-freeing cultures are the best forerunners for horseradish. It is a peasant after early potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, table beets. You can also consider the option of soils on which crops and legumes were grown, but such beds will need deep plowing up to 35 cm.
Planting horseradish in the ground
We need to figure out how to plant horseradish. The plant propagates by cuttings, the harvesting of which begins in the fall. The best proportions for cuttings: length - 13-15 cm, thickness - not more than 1.5 cm. They practice planting new plants with a cut of roots about 8 cm long, hardy and strong.
Before you breed horseradish in the garden, the soil should be prepared. Preparation is as follows. First, the excess buds are removed from the cuttings, leaving the lower ones for the formation of roots and a pair of the upper ones for the formation of greenery. There are two methods for removing the kidneys - wiping with a stiff mitten (it does not always help, after using it about half of the buds are alive and can branch) and germination of the kidneys for 15-20 days at a temperature not exceeding +18 ° C in peat or wet sawdust noticeable to the naked eye and can be confidently removed mechanically. Properly prepared cuttings can be planted into the soil at an angle of 45 °, having previously dug holes of medium size. In the hole is the main part of the cutting, about 12 cm, and on the surface of the soil - the part with a small number of buds, protruding a few cm. Compliance with the 60 x 40 cm planting scheme will provide the plants with an opportunity to get a good development after growing up and to form a strong above-ground part.
Did you know? Horseradish exhibits extreme frost resistance, some of its species are common even beyond the Arctic Circle.
Horseradish care
Like any plant, horseradish requires proper watering and timely fertilization.
How to conduct watering
Watering horseradish occurs throughout the growth period. It is worth remembering that excessive moisture, as well as a lack of incoming moisture, will adversely affect the productivity of the plant. It is known that in years of drought, horseradish gives not so good a crop, and the quality of the plant deteriorates much: branching and stiffening of roots occur, juiciness decreases. The emergence of flowering shoots is dangerous, they indicate a lack of saturation of the earth with moisture, you must immediately get rid of them.
Weeding and loosening between the rows
Horseradish in summertime weed several times to enrich the roots with oxygen, first, as the soil is compacted and weeds are loosened (a week before germination at a depth of 3-4 cm, after the appearance - 6-8 cm, when the plant reaches a length of 20 cm - 10-12 cm), when leaves appear - weeding and loosening between the rows. The procedure should be repeated four times per season. In addition, all weak leaves are amenable to removal, the most resistant remain, which rapidly grow later, and the root is also strengthened. 
Horseradish fertilizer
Good horseradish and care for him in the open field can not be imagined without feeding. For feeding horseradish use several types of nutrient solutions. You can take 50 g of complex mineral fertilizers, 10 liters of melt water and water only in dry weather, at the rate of 4 liters of water per 1 m². The first dressing produced by potassium and nitrogen, it is carried out after the appearance of the first leaves. Another method is the use of such a solution: 20 g of urea, 40 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium chloride per 1 m².
Harvesting
Cut the leaves begin in late July. Then they are used for making pickles and pickles. It is also necessary to understand how to dig horseradish. At the beginning of autumn, without waiting for frosts, when the intensive growth of leaves has not yet begun, they are cut, dug up the root, tied with a bundle and kept buried in the ground in a garden bed or in a cellar in wet sand.
In addition, when cleaning, you need to carefully collect the rhizomes in order to avoid the conversion of horseradish from a useful plant into a hated weed. If the diameter of the roots is less than 0.5 cm, they are mostly sent to waste, and the roots with a diameter of 0.5 to 1.5 cm are retained for the purpose of using in the spring as planting material. The average yield of horseradish is 150-200 kg with 100 m². In Russia, a dish of crap is popular, with freshly picked horseradish root added to it.
Important! It is believed that horseradish retains its healing properties and vitamins only a week after picking from the garden, then only taste and aromatic qualities remain in it.These tips on how to grow horseradish in the garden, will assist summer residents in the process of growing this plant and the harvest of a rich crop. And cooked crap, considered an aphrodisiac, will be a good winter snack.
