How to Grow Celery

Celery has a long growing period, lasting for approximately 5 months. It is a fibrous food with a high water content, which makes it healthy and suitable for weight loss diets. Celery is a great vegetable to have on hand in a backyard garden if your area has the right conditions that celery needs to thrive.

Materials:

•   Celery plants

•   Celery seeds

•   Fertilisers

•   Fish emulsions

•   Mulch

•   Seaweed extract

•   Weed ashes

Tools

•   Floating row covers

•   Garden trowels

•   Seed flats

•   Seed-starting kits

•   General gardening tools

Instructions

Preparation

1. Choose a site that gets at least 6 hours of sun a day and has moist, rich soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.5. Ensure moisture retention by enriching the soil with plenty of compost or well-cured manure a few weeks before planting the celery seedlings.
2. Sprinkle the planting area with wood ashes to increase its potassium content.
3. Buy started celery plants at a nursery. Otherwise, start seeds indoors about eight weeks before the last expected frost.

Sowing

1. Celery germination rates are great to sow your celery seeds in stations (5 seeds a station) a few inches apart and 0.5 cm deep. Thin out all but the strongest plant that emerges from each station. Germination takes from around 12 to 14 days and is successful when temperatures are around 70ºF.
2. Transplant seedlings to the garden when temperatures are reliably above 50ºF. Don’t be tempted to rush the season: plants exposed to temperatures in the 40s F for 10 to 15 days are likely to go to seed prematurely.
3. Set plants slightly deeper than they were growing in their flats, spacing them 6 to 10 inches apart, and water with a diluted solution of fish emulsion and seaweed extract.

Tending

1. Mulch to retain moisture and deter weeds, and install floating row covers to fend off insect pests.
2. Keep the soil damp, and feed once a month with manure tea.
3. Harvest celery as soon as it is large enough to use. Either cut off individual stems as they develop colour, or pull the entire plant and cut off the roots.

Tips and warnings

• Celery does not grow well in very hot conditions, a hot spell without adequate watering will result in the stems becoming tough and strongly.
• If your climate can’t provide the temperature that celery needs–daytime temperatures between 56 to 75ºF, and night time temperatures of 60 to 65ºF–do not plant celery. Devote the space to a less finicky vegetable and buy your celery from the best produce market you can find.
• Weed carefully between celery plants as the weeds will compete strongly against celery for nutrients, light and moisture.
• You can blanch your celery by covering up the stems to prevent light from reaching them. Blanching your celery will reduce some of the bitterness and will make your stalks paler. Soil or mulch can be used for blanching and should be built up as the stalks develop from about a month before your harvest the celery.
• Careful watering is vital to good celery yields, as celery requires regular watering.