Last edited on October 25, 2026. View history
Horseradish
Horseradish
How to sow horseradish: Root cuttings
Sun requirement for horseradish: Plant in Full Sun
Horseradish is a hardy perennial plant in the Brassica family (Brassicaceae) grown for it's tapered white taproot, generally 20-25cm long, which is used as a spice and eaten as a vegetable. Roots are ground or shredded to make pungent, spicy sauces and condiments. Seeds or root cuttings are planted in the fall, and the taproot is harvested the following year. It can be harvested in fall after the first frost kills off the greens, or in the early spring before new leaves grow. A winter of hard frosts will sweeten the root. Horseradish should be divided and replanted every 2 years to prevent it from becoming woody. The plant spreads rapidly. If invasive tendencies are managed properly, it is a good companion plant because it wards off diseases and repels insects like potato bugs and beetles, aphids, whiteflies, blister beetles, and some caterpillars.
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Horseradish facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
180cm × 30cmRow Spacing
30cmCrop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For horseradish, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 6°C and a shortest growing cycle of 150 days at its best temperature, about 1650 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your horseradish will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow horseradishes
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant horseradishes with
blackberry
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Photos
Horseradish crops
Horseradish plantings
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Where horseradishes grow
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What people are saying about horseradishes
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Who's planted horseradishes
- wrdnrd Canterbury — Deck · UDistrict, Seattle,...
- shiny Sunny old raised bed · Wellington, NZ
- lauravalentine vegetable bed
- neotoma Container Garden · Silver Spring, MD
- wormwood23 Veggie Garden · Monroe, WI, USA
Horseradish harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 150 to 210 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Armoracia rusticana P. Gaertner, Meyer & Scherb.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Capparales Cruciferae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual, perennial |
| Habit | erect, acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | poorly (saturated >50% of year), well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
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