bananimal

Anybody growing this thing? Guess what it is. Oval and fernlike leaves on the same stalk. Small white flower clusters on top.

sunfish

Strange

bananimal

Hint------------ you eat it with shrimp cockatail!

PR-Giants

Is that a small cockatiel or a small cockatoo, mine's a Moluccan.

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Abnshrek

Its a cocktail plant? :^)

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I'm a Nannerhead :^)

PR-Giants

recao

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john_ny

Horseradish. I've grown it, but forgot what it looked like, until you mentioned the shrimp cocktail. The first time I dug a piece up and washed it, I remarked to my wife that it didn't smell very pungent. I put the piece in a blender and, when I opened the cover, it brought tears to my eyes!

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bananimal

You got the idea - it's for seasoning.

John's right --- it's horse radish. When you grow your own it will blow your socks off. With rare roast beef - WOOF!

The stores around here carry it on holidays only!? When you say why not all-the-time, they say no demand. When I lived in north east Charlotte, NC there were a lot of German decendants of original settelers. We could get fresh zingy H-radish all the time. So not wanting to wait for holidays for a good shrimp cocktail I saved one chunk with growing points. They started to sprout in the fridge and I stuck it in a pot. Will plant it inground in a month or so. It's invasive so gotta keep an eye on it. The stuff in jars is dead flat - no bite.

Speaking of recao, aka culantro the Bonnie people sell seedlings at HD and Lowes in spring. Lasts all year. Also Bravo mkt carries it all the time. Right next to the berros. Man I love a spicy berro salad - watercress - grew up on the stuff.

wolfyhound

Wait... so I could buy horseradish roots in the grocery with the ugly rooty bits and plant it and grow a horseradish??

*trying to resist the urge to rush to the store*

I foresee making more grocery produce workers wonder about my sanity. Yesterday I was tugging the leaves on pineapples. One lady watched me and started to do it too and asked "If they come out, does that mean it's ripe?" I told her no, if they didn't pop out, it meant you might be able to plant the top and grow a plant.

She told me I was crazy and that pineapples don't grow on plants. I really wish I could have gotten her to tell me where she thinks pineapples come from but she walked off. But I have a pineapple and soon I think I shall have horseradish to try.

Any care tips?

john_ny

Just dig a hole, and throw the root in. When harvesting; dig it up, cut off the piece you want, and throw the rest back in the hole. Really simple.

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wolfyhound

Thank you!

And thank you to the OP Bananimal for posting the cool picture!

JodoGarden

I didn't recognize it. I grew horseradish up North as a crop to sell. It can take over everything once it gets established. The leaves are large and grow straight up almost. I knew another farmer who pureed the roots in a blender and opened the top to the blender and it LITERALLY knocked him out! He hit his head on the kitchen counter on the way to the floor... very potent stuff when it's fresh!

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bananimal

You know what I'm talking about. Since moving to S Fla I found out that the freshest seafood is available year round. The shrimp are unbelievably good.

I use lemons from my own Eureka lemon tree and now I can dig up fresh H-radish.

If I could only grow my own ketchup!!!

JodoGarden

Yeah... tomatoes are probably the only thing I can't seem to grow in FL... at least not a good one!

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bananimal

I have tried for 8 years. Still haven't figured it out. This stupid sugar sand grows so many other things well. I built 2 raised boxes for this year. Will see what happens.

Container growing tomats and bell peppers works well but I still would like to grow some inground. Heirloom tomats grow good but I can't stand the flavor and texture.

JodoGarden

I've tried in ground and containers... different varieties... they get to bloom stage and start getting diseases and worn out (in ground by nematodes). I know a farmer down here that put chicken manure and bedding on her garden and got a great crop this year. Maybe that is the key... she said the bedding from her chickens made the difference. I can grown all other solanaceous plants, just not tomatoes very well. They say b/c tomatoes are big mono crop here in FL there are many diseases and bugs to deal with year-round.

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sunfish

Dos Equis

wolfyhound

I have the same issues with tomatoes. I grew huge beautiful plants, they had plenty of blooms and small green tomatoes, but they always had issues before they turned into even green tomato stage(like for frying).

We used to grow them fine in one property, it had rich loomy dirt and the only issue we ever had was deer eating them.

bananimal

The only S Fla growers that I know that make it look easy grow tomats only in green houses. In raised planting boxes with only 100% compost for the medium. Spray with Organocide once in while. Add fert. Get huge crops.

Wolfy ----- curious about your forum name --- do you have Irish wolfhounds? What a great monster dog they are.

wolfyhound

I do not have wolfhounds, no. I ended up choosing the screenname long ago when I irst started getting online. My husband was "GreyWolf" and I joked that I must have been a wolfhound to pursue him.

I'm definitely the irish and not the russian. Shaggy, lanky and clumsy with a tendency to knock things over... not sleek and elegant and graceful!