[Grubbypaws]

I cant wait to harvest my horseradish but the books all say that cool soil promotes the formation of compounds that give horseradish roots their pungency and I should wait until after a frost, before the ground starts to freeze.  With these mild temperatures I am not sure when that is going to happen 

If I harvested some now and put it in the fridge or freezer would that have the same effect?

[Kristen]

Dunno the answer to your question, but when you process it I recommend doing it outside and wearing goggles ...

[surbie100]

We've got fairly cool soil now 'dahn sarf', we had frost a while back and my horseradish has died back so am taking some this weekend.

[beesrus]

I wouldn't worry about the pungency 
No frosts here yet, but my leaves have laid down and I dug a couple of roots yesterday. Processed it this morning, and ..... cor blimey !

The thing to do is make sure the root is well processed or grated dry and then make sure you leave it a good 10 minutes or more before you add any vinegar /water. I use a ratio of 1:2. The interval of time between the grating and the adding of vinegar is where you can control the pungency. The longer you wait, the hotter it gets. It's all to do with the air getting at it. I left mine for a 1/2 hour.
Mine then also gets a little salt and mustard added, and then it goes into a jar in the fridge. I take some out and add  cream as and when I'm about to use it. Lasts for a very long time if the cream is kept separate.

[pigguns]

I keep a pealed root in the freezer and just grate it direct into whatever I'm doing.

[Grubbypaws]

Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, beets and parsnips from the garden and my HORSERADISH sauce. mmmmm doesn’t come any better especially when washed down with a nice red wine 

[louiseyoungs]

Hmmm...I took some from a friend in a large pot (about 2 feet deep) and it has remained in there as I was advised not to put it into the ground as it will spread like wildfire. So, does anyone know how long usually it takes to grow large enough to use in the kitchen? I'm not sure even how old it is  . The leaves that have died back are about 7 inches long if that helps!

[surbie100]

I've just ditched mine. I had it in a 42L pot for 2 years and it was a mass of thin spindly roots. Might try again in an old bin, but the shallower pot was a total waste of time. And compost, since I wasn't going to empty it on my plot.

[beesrus]

It normally takes a full year to get usable roots. I started mine off a few years back from a thin carrot sized root bought from Morissons food supermarket, and it took the whole 12 months to the late Autumn. I can't imaging horseradish particularly liking being in a pot, the roots like to spread somewhat horizontally. Leaves are usually far larger than 7 inches, more like a rather huge dock in appearance and size. My plants have been a good three feet high this year... very strong growers with roots about the size of medium parsnips and below.

Yes, it is invasive , but it isn't the devil and is nothing that can't be easily coped with in a small area. Every year on harvest, I dig around a couple of feet or to the end of the roots and pull up everything I don't want for next year. Keep on top of it every year. Doesn't take long. You can soon dig up escapees in late Spring once they show themselves.. the leaves are pretty obvious. The hardest bit is remembering not to put root remnants  and diggings etc into the compost or elsewhere on the plot.

[New shoot]

Its pretty resilient once it gets into open soil.

I inherited a large horseradish on my plot and it took years to get rid of it.  I dug and dug (halfway to Australia I think), it came back.  I dug more, guess what.  In the end I applied glyphosate to the emerging foliage and it looked a bit sick, then came back    It came back weaker each time, but eventually, after 2 to 3 years of glyphosate, it gave up the ghost.

Might try again in an old bin

I think the extra depth will do the trick.  I've seen it grown successfully in blue barrels 

[Grubbypaws]

My neighbour is not a gardener or a weeder. In one slightly awkward area where there once was a hedge our gardens meet with no boundary. I use the space to grow raspberries and rhubarb but one fairly large patch is forever invaded by his weeds; or at least it used to be    Now it is a fantastically productive area of horseradish .The fact that it is so robust means it keeps the weeds at bay!

It doesn’t  adjoin the main gardens so there are no worries there and it is not a place the neighbour ventures so he doesn’t mind.

Perfect solution. If any invades into his unloved patch I will simply give him a jar of HR sauce