Tue 30 Dec 2008
If your area enjoys about four months of cool weather and if you can provide a deep bed of sandy or organic soil, you can grow celery rather easily. Elsewhere you may end up with tough stalks on plants that go to seed. Instead of being a total loss, however, leaves, stalks, and seeds all make good flavoring.
How to plant
In hot climates, best results come from seeds or transplants started in late summer. In mild West Coast areas you can grow celery almost year round. If you’re in doubt about your winter’s effect, try glass or plastic frost protectors (see pages 38-39); or start seeds indoors in January and set out seedlings in early spring. If you use seeds, soak them first. They germinate in about 10 days, are ready to transplant into the ground when they are about 3 inches high, in 10 to 12 weeks. Sometimes nurseries sell seedlings in 2 inch pots or six packs.
Work in plenty of fertilizer and soil conditioners before transplanting celery into the ground. Space plants about 6 inches apart. Stagger the harvest period by transplanting only a half dozen or so at one time. Make furrows between rows and irrigate thoroughly and often. (If plants dry out, they get tough.)
Care
When plants are about half mature size (about 2yz months after transplanting), begin forcing them to grow rapidly. Feed and water frequently.
Pests
Celery worm, the colorful larva of the black swallowtail butterfly, may feed on celery foliage. If they do serious damage, remove them by hand or spray with Bacillus thuringiensis.
Harvesting
Some gardeners harvest a few stalks at a time as soon as they look ready; others wait until the plant forms a tight head, then cut off the whole thing just above the roots. New stalks grow from the roots; they are smaller and less succulent than the first stalks.
Surplus fall crop heads can be stored for weeks if dug up, roots and all, before frost and kept in a well ventilated, cool place. Or heads can be protected in place by piling straw against them and holding it down with soil.
In containers. Although celery can succeed in deep containers, plants need even more watering and feeding than they do in the ground. This results in a great deal of maintenance over a long growing period.
