Celery questions

[mrsgreenthumbs]

Sooo... I was buying seeds and having a bit of spring fever when I bought a packet of celery. My little helper planted the seeds.. a bit thick and now I have all these itty bitty plant's that are VERY crowded. Should I begin thinning? They don't seem to be growing very quickly. Any tips? Iv never grown celery before.

[applestar]

My first year growing celery too, so I'm not much help. But I would definitely thin. I think 3" apart at the outset, 6", then 12"? Something like that, I believe. They like lots of water, I've read. I have them hardening off right now and will be planting them in the low part of my sloping raised bed where they'll get afternoon shade.

[mrsgreenthumbs]

So they take shade huh? Iv got the best place on one end of my raised bed (recently vacated by a bunch of ready to harvest spinach that was urinated on by my neighbor's lush of a GF's dog... ) And I was thinking of planting some romaine in the slightly sunnyer spot on that end... cool I'll be transplanting while the DH is digging holes for my chicken pen!!!

[Dillbert]

celery needs constant water and rich soil / constant nitrogen - it's a heavy feeder.

thin to minimum 6 inches between plants.

it's also a long season crop - 100+ days to maturity from seedlings is typical - of course, in California that's not an issue [g]

[garden5]

From what I've read, celery is a bit fussy. It's best to start is indoors and then transplant it after danger of frost because I've heard that it takes some time to mature.

You will want to make sure it has enough water, but not too much or too little. I've also read that it's good have about 3 ft between rows an 1.5 between plants.

I hope this helps some.

[gixxerific]

Yeah good luck with Celery I have also read that is a pretty tough plant to grow. I would suggest doing a Google search of planting Celery for some tips.

Good luck. My attempt last year was a bust and starting seeds indoors this winter didn't go that great either.

They, like blue berries, like it soaking for one thing. So keep that in mind when planting others near them.

[mrsgreenthumbs]

Well So far so good. I had a TON of the little plants that were in real need of a transplant so I placed them in a cool (and very moist) area in my raised bed. I planted plugs of the little plant's so if I get some losses it should be cool. The root system was HUGE for such a tiny little plant! I planted some lettuce next to it so I should be good there and the bed's while kept wattered are great drainer's so I'm not too worried about that. Who knows. Worth a shot.

[nes]

Don't be discouraged There is nothing wrong with attempting to grow something new (also trying celery this year for the first time...).

From my understanding you should soak the celery seeds over night in a compost tea (or just water) to soften them up before you try to germinate them.

I had just as much luck simply putting them in a seed package (damp paper towel in a sandwich bag), that also helps to soften the seed coat .

GL - I started my celeries a month or so ago & just put them out a few days ago (our frost date is early May & we're having super-warm temperatures this year). If I can keep my dogs from trampling them, they seem to be off to a really good start already!

[Sharpy]

My celery plants are getting pretty big now, how do I know when to harvest? Will they go to seed and get bitter if left too long?

[garden5]

Congratulations on your successful growing. I don't know about getting bitter, but if exposed to warm, then cool temperatures during their early stages, it increases the chances that they will bolt when it gets hot. Other then that, it seems like they are a little more bolt-resistant crop.

[Sharpy]

Great, well I will let it grow for awhile longer then, here it how it looks now. There are 4 plants with 18" between each...I think they needed a bit more room.

[img]https://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/IamSharpy/Garden/celery1.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/IamSharpy/Garden/celery2.jpg[/img]

[pepper4]

I too planted celery this year but cheated and bought small starters. They get morning sun and then the rest of the day shade. They do require alot of consistant watering. Sharpy, your plants look good. Alot like mine. I don't think I'd thin them out. Give them more time because they are slow growing.

[mrsgreenthumbs]

Mine are doing well. I planted the plugs originally allowed everything to get accustomed to the new home and grow then thinned them out A LOT. I got good result's so far. I have harvested twice for salad's and just cut the larger pieces off each plant and honestly I think it helped them because they had TON's of growth after I trimmed off them. Any way's the lettuce and celery are great planting companions and seem to grow well together. I noticed that now that it finally warmed up here we had a bit of a wilt once but other than that no problems.

[garden5]

I too planted celery this year but cheated and bought small starters. They get morning sun and then the rest of the day shade. They do require alot of consistant watering. Sharpy, your plants look good. Alot like mine. I don't think I'd thin them out. Give them more time because they are slow growing.

That's one of the reasons I didn't plant celery this year is that it has a long maturity time. However, I think I will be able to get away with it next year if I start them indoors early enough.

[Sharpy]

I started all of mine from seed in February and had more plants than I could use.

You get a ton of seeds per pack, hopefully I can reuse what's leftover next year.

My Celerac I started a bit later cause it was hard to find seeds, I eventually had to order them. Those appear to be growing well too. I hope they are good, I have never ate it before.

[nes]

Mine aren't growing as well.

I have them in a half-shade area, I have one rather large and two that are quite small. I found any of them that I transplanted died right away so the only ones I have are ones that direct seeded in the garden.

Then again, until recently I had a real issue of the dogs running through that garden to bark at the cows & running over my vegetables .

I used grass-clippings to blanch the stocks as my card-board just wasn't working.

[applestar]

My 5 or 6 celery plants seemed to be doing OK until I thought things were getting too crowded and cut down the bolted lettuce surrounding them. I left the cut lettuce on the ground as mulch, but, this morning, I saw that the celery were getting wilty and a bit yellow -- too much sun? too little water? decomposing lettuce foliage got too hot? I watered deeply yesterday We'll see. I sowed some sprouted fall peas where the lettuce used to be.

I think the lettuce would've worked well to provide the shade and blanching if they hadn't been so close. I'll have to remember to space them out a little more and use something else that won't need to be cut down mid-season -- maybe Swiss Chard -- next time.

[shady plot]

So, is there a proper time to harvest or can you just break off and use as needed? My plants seem to be getting leafier, but the stalks are still growing. I'm not sure I know what a bolted celery plant looks like.