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Growing Celery

submitted on 31 October 2012
Celery is a useful but underrated vegetable, adding crunch to salads and variety to stews and other dishes. It also adds something to ratatouille, and is great for slimmers to snack on. Celery leaves can also be eaten or used in soups or used to make celery juice.

Celery has the reputation of being a difficult crop to grow, with a long growing period - around 5 months . A hard frost can completely destroy a whole crop. If you are up for a challenge however, the following tips should help.

Preparation

Dig an organic compost or manure fertiliser into the soil a few weeks before planting out the celery seedlings, as celery likes a soil that is capable of retaining moisture.

Sowing

Because a celery plant has such a long maturity time, unless you live in a location with long growing seasons, you need to start celery seeds indoors at least 8 – 10 weeks before the last frost date for your area.

Celery seeds are tiny and tricky to plant. Try mixing them with sand and then sprinkling the sand/seed mix over the pots you will be starting the celery plants in. Cover the seeds with just a little bit of soil as they like to be planted shallowly.

Once the celery seeds have sprouted and are large enough, either thin the seedlings or prick them out to their own pots.

Planting Out

Plant out your celery seedlings when they are about 8cm tall (5-6 weeks) and temperatures have risen above 55 deg F. Space your seedlings about 15-20cm apart in rows that are about 90cm apart. Remember that celery is very temperature sensitive, so don’t plant it out too early or you will kill or weaken the plant.

Unless you live in a location that is ideal to grow celery plants, you are best planting your celery where it will get 6 hours of sun, but preferably somewhere that the celery plant will be shaded for the hottest part of the day.

Celery does not grow well in very hot conditions, a hot spell without adequate watering will result in the stems becoming tough and stringy.

Tending

Careful watering is vital to good celery yields as celery requires regular frequent watering. You will also need to fertilize regularly to keep up with the nutrient needs of the celery plant.

Weed carefully between the celery plants as the weeds will compete strongly against celery for nutrients, light and moisture.

To Blanch or Not to Blanch?

Many gardeners prefer to blanche their celery to make them more tender, but be aware that when blanching celery, you are reducing the amount of vitamins in the celery plant. Blanching celery turns the green part of the plant white.

Blanching celery is done one of two ways. The first way is to just slowly build a mound around a growing celery plant. Every few days add a little more soil and at harvest the celery plant will be blanched.

The other method is to cover the lower half of the celery plant with thick brown paper or cardboard a few weeks before you plan to harvest the celery.

Harvesting

Harvest celery when it has reached the desired size, cutting the plant off above the soil line so that all stalks are still as one unit. Wash the stalk bulb in cold water and dry. Celery will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Celery will blanch naturally when in storage.

You can if you wish remove a few stalks at a time rather than harvesting the whole plant. If doing this remove the outer stalks first and let the less developed inner stalks continue in their development. Take care not to damage the rest of the plant if removing individual stalks.

Good luck with your crop - I hope you'll be crunching your home grown celery next summer.

An article from the UK Gardening Directory www.ukgardening-directory.co.uk

 







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