How to get horseradish out of the garden: the main rules and why you should never pick up a shovel

Horseradish is a useful vegetable that is good for seasoning dishes and is indispensable for summer preservation. But the plant has an unpleasant tendency to grow rapidly without strict control over its reproduction and to displace other crops.

Some people fight horseradish by digging up its roots with a shovel, but experienced gardeners say that this is a very bad idea. OBOZ.UA asked why this is so and what they advise to do instead.

Why digging up horseradish won't help

It's all about the incredible resilience of the plant. Even if you chop off a small piece of the root with a shovel while working, a new horseradish will still grow from it. If you separate several pieces in this way, you will have more than one plant. Therefore, to combat this species, you need to use other means and approaches.

Safe planting

It is best to plant horseradish in such a way that it is easier to control its reproduction later. Perhaps the easiest method is to grow it in boxes, tubs, or other containers. You can put them in the corner you need or dig them into the ground, leaving only 5-10 centimeters of the edge on the surface.

You can also limit horseradish by digging deeply around the perimeter of the bed with sides - sheets of slate, metal, plastic, etc. Even a fine mesh can keep the plant from spreading uncontrollably. They should be buried at least a meter deep - horseradish has a powerful root system.

Proper disposal of residues

Horseradish can grow even from the smallest part of the plant - root, stem or seed. Therefore, it is strongly advised not to dispose of it in compost. You need to destroy the remains of the plant completely - for example, by burning it.

Mechanical removal of horseradish

It is possible to dig up the garden so that not even fragments of the plant remain in it. But for this, you need to use special pitchforks rather than a shovel or cultivator. They allow you to pull out all the roots and fragments of plants from the soil. In addition, after such treatment, it is worth checking the area for vegetable sprouts and pulling them out by hand throughout the season.

A very reliable method of controlling the plant is to cover the area where it grew with a strong, light-tight material, such as film, roofing material, or even slate. Simple mulching will not work, because horseradish can germinate through mulch. But a denser coating will definitely keep it away.

Use of herbicides

The green part of horseradish responds well to treatment with chemical herbicides. However, it should be remembered that the root will remain alive in the ground and give new sprouts. In order to destroy the root system of the plant, some people repeat the chemical treatment up to six times per season, but this creates a risk of chemical contamination of the soil.

Sometimes gardeners use undiluted herbicides to coat parts of the plant, but this operation also has to be done repeatedly and each plant has to be treated manually, which can be dangerous to health.

You can also find advice to cover fresh cuts on the horseradish stem with a generous portion of table salt. Several such treatments in a row do reduce the number of plants in the garden. But at the same time, salt can affect the composition of the soil and its yield.

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