Celery Is A Delicious Vegetable That Requires Just A Few Simple Steps to Grow.

We had never grown celery – or seen it grown – before this year, so it is a new experiment for us!

Despite warnings that it can be hard to germinate, ours germinated just fine although they did take a few weeks. The plants stayed tiny and spindly for quite a while after planting outdoors in the spring.

They eventually did start growing, but then I accidentally killed half of them by not watering often enough – apparently they like a LOT of water.

The remaining plants are absolutely gorgeous and growing great now – no problems so far…. We will see how the rest of the summer goes. It has been so cool and wet so far, the celery has been very happy!

Here is an article with some helpful how-to tips for growing this unique vegetable:

Learning how to grow celery is simple. The main features this crop requires are rich soil, plenty of water, and protection from hot sun and high temperatures. Grow celery as a winter crop in the South, a summer crop in the far North, and a fall crop in most other areas.

Planting: You can buy transplanted crops from nurseries, but cultivar choices expand enormously when you grow celery from seed.

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For a late-summer crop, sow seeds indoors 10 to 12 weeks before the last average spring frost. Soak the tiny seeds overnight to encourage germination. Fill a container with a mix of ½ compost and ½ sand, and plant in rows 1 inch apart.

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(For more details see full article….)
For a fall crop, also known as a second harvest, sow seeds indoors in May or June, and follow the same directions, transplanting seedlings in June or July.

Growing Guidelines: Apply several inches of mulch, and provide at least 1 inch of water a week. Gently remove any weeds that might compete for nutrients with celery’s shallow roots. Feed every 10 to 14 days with compost tea or a balanced organic fertilizer….

Blanching celery destroys some nutrients but prevents stalks from becoming bitter. It also protects fall crops against heavy frosts. You can grow a self-blanching variety, such as ‘Golden Self-Blanching’, or blanch conventional varieties by one of several methods (see full article for details).

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Problems: Celery’s main enemies are parsleyworms, carrot rust flies, and nematodes. See the carrot page for more information on these pests. Celery leaf tiers are tiny yellow caterpillars marked with one white stripe; control by hand picking.

Common diseases that affect celery crops, as well as other vegetables, include early and late blight, which both begin as small dots on the leaves, and pink rot, which shows up as water-soaked stem spots and white or pink coloration at stalk bases. Crop rotation is the best control.

Read the Full Article At Rodale’s Organic Life…