NON INVASIVE METHOD OF GROWING HORSERADISH

[Johnboy]

Plant your individual Thongs 2’ (60cm) apart and allow to establish the first year.
At the end of the first season clear all plant debris and weeds from the area and build a box 12”x12”x12” (30x30x30cm) with no top or bottom. Place the box over the crown centrally and insert 2-3” (50-75mm) of compost over the crown and top the rest of the box up with sharp sand. You will need a box for every thong.
The following Spring the Horseradish will send up several heads and these are new thongs. At the end of the season when the plant is dying back remove the box and pick ALL the thongs from the crown. You must pick all the thongs irrespectively if you want them all or not or the system breaks down. When you have you young succulent thongs simply repeat the system again Box over the crown, compost and sharp sand.
If you need Horseradish urgently during the growing season it is possible to unearth a thong and take as much as you need.
NEVER allow Horseradish to flower and at the first sign of inflorescent cut them from the plant. DO NOT dispose of on the compost heap always burn them.
DO NOT dispose of unwanted surplus thongs on the compost heap either pass on to another gardener explaining the method or destroy. Suggest you allow drying out and burning them.
In the unlikely event of growth outside the box if you have it centrally positioned simply keep hoeing it down and deal with the source at the end of the season when harvesting.
When processing Horseradish remember to do so in an unconfined area and be aware that it will affect your eyes at about the strength Onions x 10! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

[oldherbaceous]

Well Johnboy, firstly glad you had a super day yesterday. And you deserve all those nice comments that people sent in. Do you ever bump your halo on the door frame, only joking.
Your horseradish boxes sound brilliant and i think i will give them ago. How on earth did you think of that. Do you think it would be alright to make them 3'x1' and put two horseradish in the one box. I would have no trouble lifting them off because i am as strong as an ox.
Eagerly waiting your reply.

Kind regards a strong Old Herbaceous.

Strong in the arm weak in the head.

[Johnboy]

Hi Old Herbaceous,
The answer to that is by a sheer fluke. I had 15 tons of Sharp Sand delivered and instead of tipping on the hard standing as requested the Driver dumped it in the middle of the green lane that runs along my plot. It went everywhere and although we moved enough to open the lane it was left on the verges until we could get round to it which in this case was about 9 months. As I stuck a shovel into a pile it came out with about 8 wonderful HR Thongs on it.
I investigated and unearthed it all and I could see what had happened. I did one of my experiments and it worked. That was almost 30 years ago and I have the same plants on the go after all this time.
I have only ever used the small individual boxes but see absolutely no reason why it shouldn't work with a slightly larger box. I modified two of my boxes so that I can pick mid season if necessary. One side is removable without too much disturbance to the whole crop.
Strangely the plant on the verge where they all came from died out years ago.

[Allan]

Where we lived in Surrey there was a grass verge opposite and the edge of an open field. A party of Londoners (Central) used to make periodic visits to harvest the horseradish to process and sell at London markets. Railway embankments are known as another place where it thrives.It could be elswhere if one was alert enough to recognise it. The worse the ground the better the flavour so they say.
Allan

[Chantal]

Thanks Allan, we'll be off for a walk today to have a look! I have horseradish in a pot so I know what I'm looking for and my house backs on to the old Great Central Railway which is now a four mile linea park. Looking at the leaves, there's certainly stuff there that could that I can see by looking out of the back gate and down the embankment so a little circumspect poking around may be in order. We can't dig anything much up if we find it as the park is also a nature reserve, but the warden is my next door neighbour Squirrel so I'll have a word with him first. Knowing him he'll tell me exactly where to find it if there is any. There's loads of watercress down there in the water meadows so why not horseradish. I love free food.

[peter]

Chantal, talking of free food the hawthorn is going to break bud soon.

Do you have a copy of "Food for Free" by Richard Mabey?

A fascinating read.

[Beccy]

Once you know what you are looking for it seems to pop up all over the place. I often see it on the central round of large roundabouts and on other large road verges. Although that's not somewhere I would want to gather any thing from.

I like the Roger Phillips book, is it 'Wild Food'?, something like that along the same lines as 'Food For Free'. It has beautiful photographs as well as the information and recipes.

[Johnboy]

Horseradish is a very common wild plant and abounds in this area as it does in the Hereford area.
The only snag with digging wild Horseradish
1. Is it legal to do so now?
2. You will probably need a pick and shovel to get it out of the ground.
3. You are going to have to establish it for a year before you can start with the box method so some decent young thongs are the better bet.
The young tender thongs that you get from the box method are so much easier to use and are just as full tasting as hoary old roots only one hell of a lot easier to process.
Hitherto Horseradish has been known as a proper nuiscance weed which can be hard to get rid of.
By using the box method you somehow get the best of both worlds.

[vivie veg]

Quite right Johnboy, it is illegal to pick anything growing in the wild unless you have the land owners permission.

This is to protect wild life, natural habitats etc from the odd few hundred people how see nothing wrong in taking a little piece of this and that...however if everyone did it we would be left with no wild plants! The fine is huge...some £2,000 several years ago when the law was introduced, but I have no idea what it is now!

[Allan]

Re this method, is it really the roots you are describing as thongs or do you create a harvest of blanched top shoots. Otherwise I would wounder if the top growth has the same potency as the shredded root, it might even be more acceptable to some palates.
Allan

[Johnboy]

Hi Allan,
Let me explain: because the Horseradish crown wants to be on the surface when it gets buried it strives to establish itself on the surface by sending up these spurs called Thongs (why Thongs I know not) if these Thongs were not picked every year then the plant will have succeeded in estabish itself on the surface and this is why it is essential to pick everything and start again each year. You wonder (and please not wounder)if the Thongs are roots and the answer is NO they are spurs put out by the plant to re-establish itself on the surface. These Thongs do have hair roots and if replanted would grow into mature Horseradish plants the following year.
They have every bit of the potency and even if you dig up Horseradish you should only use the lateral roots and not the main core as that is exeedingly coarse and woody and not suitable for making Relishes and Creams.
Does this answer your question?

[Allan]

Thank you. I accept that explanation. I note that there is little explanation on the web of what is meant by the term thong, even a form of attire seems to be given more prominence by some sources. I may yet get involved in the production of horseradish but at the moment Jerusalem Artichokes are more probable, a totally unsatisfied market exists for them but unfortunately the high mouse population at the farm rules them out for growing there. We must away now, lots to do. Make the best of the holiday
Allan

[lizzie]

Where can I get copies of the Food For Free books ect? I've not seen them in Waterstones or Borders.

Sounds like a good read and, if if I can get food for nowt, i'll have 2!!

[Tigger]

Try Amazon. They might have a second hand copy. I think Richard Mabey updated it a few years ago, or am I thinking about John Seymour's self sufficiency book.....don't know.

[Beccy]

I think you are thinking of both