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Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: 1066 on August 27, 2009, 10:11:42
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Hi
how easy is celery to grow? I was thinking about getting a self blanching variety.
I love celery but find it hard to get good, tasty ones in the shops (those watery things imported from Israel are pretty yuck).
So on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the hardest, would you say celery is hard to grow?
thanks - in ever hopefulness that the answers will be 1 to 5 :P ::) ;D
1066
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hi 1066, i have some growing up at my plot, it came from the old boy next to me so i dont know what variety it is but is growing good, so i would say at least a 3. :D
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ooooo thats good news ;D
I also love the leaves of celery for use in cooking and the ones you get in the shops hardly have any :-X
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If you are happy to use the leaves and make soup then I'd agree with a three.. if you want long stems then we are looking at an eight or nine.. :-\
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ditto what saddad said :(
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you can get celery that just forms leaves, which is dead easy T&M do it, Just went and tasted it -it''s horrible :D Par-cel is a much nicer leaf, though i've not got this year
Proper celery is very difficult for us - guess you need the right soil. lots of moisture and rich
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Grew celery last year (and this) dead easy tasted fab but unfortunately the slugs thought so too :(Have tried all sorts of barriers this year so we'll see ::)
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It's dead easy to grow, but - as Saddad said - only if you want celery leaves. For long stalks I'd say that on scale of 1 to 10 it comes in at 11 or 12! It needs masses of muck (I gave mine a barrow-load of horse manure.) and more water than you can imagine. (I only watered mine every couple of days, and obviously no-where near enough each time.)
If you really love it - I just "quite like" it - and are prepared to spend the time and effort, then regard it as a challenge and go for it!
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I grew it last year and agree with the 11/12 if you want nice thick, juicy, crisp long stems. I was successful if producing lots of plants with loads of small thin stems (no hearts whatsoever!) and they were terribly stringy .. didn't bother this year.
TEYman
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Thanks for the replies everyone!
So for leaves its going to be ok to easy
And for nice crispy stalks a real challenge.
Well bring on the challenge I say ;D Besides if I don't get the nice stalks at a 1st attempt at least I'll have the leaves ::) .....
And thanks for the tips about the muck. Watering will be my biggest issue, so I'll have to look at how to prepare that bed so that I get the best possible set up.
Any varieties to recommend? Looking at More Veg's site - I want the 1 in the picture ;D
http://www.moreveg.co.uk/shop/article_CELTA/Celery-Tall-Utah-Organically-sourced.html?shop_param=cid%3D17%26aid%3DCELTA%26
Thanks again
1066
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if you buy the plants from saddad's june open day, a 4, plant in a trench in well manured soil and have a summer like we've just had..they like loads of water..just dug our first...loads of leaves chopped and frozen for cooking, plus all the outer stems..inside, lovely and white, taste really good and not stringy :o ;D
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Those sound great Manics, shame I'm not closer to Derby !
Do you know the variety Or can Saddad remember??
1066
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I've no idea, it just said celery..the only other one I've grown was golden self blanching, stringy only good for soups and stews ;D
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Sadly it was given to me to prick out without a name... I can ask him again... :)
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Sadly it was given to me to prick out without a name... I can ask him again... :)
That would be much appreciated - Manics has done such a good sales pitch ;D
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I'm growing 'Spartan' golden self-blanching for the first time. I started them in March, put in loads of muck and have kept them really watered, but so far they are looking small and stringy. Can anyone tell me how long they will continue growing? I want celery mainly for stews, but even so far I'm finding them difficult. 7 or 8, I'd say.
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there you go, bits of holes her and there but soon cut off ;D
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looking good manics!
what was that thread on here a while ago about "eating the holes" :P ;)
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wash 'em and cook 'em ;D
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Forget the 'difficulty' - what about continuity?
You plant self- blanching in a block - that means at leats 16 - so how many sticks do you eat in a week?
When we grew it, it was for the WI market so it went down in bundles.
As to ease - so long as well watered - & with a block, that means twice as much as you would think - no problem. But all at once.
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good point Tim! Maybe, depending on whether I'm successful or not, we'll be having celery surprise a lot! and again isn't that where friends and family come in useful ;)
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Agree - to an extent. But I find myself doing all the clearing, digging, feeding, planting, hoeing etc so that others can say look what I've grown & give it away.
NOT fair!!
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I grew/am still growing celery for the first time this year and its been dead easy and to get the long sticks of white I wrapped cardboard around some.
I also planted them close together, closer than it said on the seed packet and it worked fine. :)
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Thanks for that tip Ishard, what variety are you trying?
Tim - I understand what you mean about the hard work, but those are very naughty friends of yours ;)
1066
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I agree with planting closer than recommended.
There were 5 different varieties in this block last year
[attachment=1]
Blush, Tango and Victoria (all self blanching) did ok, as did the more traditional Granada, but I can't say they were well up to eating raw.
This year's varieties are the self blanching ones above and Utah and Giant Red. Already think I'm going to have the same problem as last year i.e. they won't be fat and juicy enough. Thinking of using a soak hose on a timer next year.
By the way, if all you want is leaf, grow lovage
[attachment=2]
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great photos Barnowl!
By the way, if all you want is leaf, grow lovage
Nah - I want the crunch as well :D
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I grew Utah a couple of years back and found it to be one of the best i had grown.
The only Celery i have grown this year is Ideal.
As said manure water and slug pellets get you good results, growing them with collars there is no need to grow them in blocks which means you can stagger them.
[attachment=1]
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1066 Im sorry I have no idea which variety it is, just a cheap packet of seed from Wilkos.
If I can find the empty packet Ill post which sort but dont hold your breath as I may have slung it away.
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Not to worry Ishard, but thanks for the info and encouragement anyway!
Davy - those are mighty fine celery! I'd read about collars - seen cardboard ones, so thanks for the inspiration and the tip about staggering them. To be honest at this rate I'll be the one that is staggered if I get owt other than leaves ;D ::)
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Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but it's my first year growing celery and as you'll see I don't get it....
I've got a good-looking block of Giant Red and I wasn't going to bother earthing up, but quite fancy trying collars on some of them since I read this thread.
....but....when and how do you put the collar around? Do the leaves have to stick out the top or the plant won't get any light and die? Do you put the collars on when the plant is shorter than the collar and like dandelions they carry on pushing up trying to find the light? Or do you put shorter collars and then taller collars?
My plants are about a foot high at the moment. What should I do?
Thanks.....
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Eat them... :)
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Eat them... :)
I hadn't thought of that one :D
Actually, they're not all a foot high (I was exaggerating) some are still fairly short - could I still collar those or is it too late? At what stage do you need to do that? Planting out?
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Dunno... we grow self blanching and haven't used collars... :-\
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Very pleased with the celery I have grown this year. In the past I have grown it as a tasty herb to tough to eat raw but very nice in soups and stews.
But grew it in a block this year, well mulched and earthed up/ collared some of it, and quite a lot of the centre is edible raw - huge amounts for soups and stews as well.
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advice on earthing up celery can be found in various places on the web ...
http://topveg.com/2009/07/growing-celery-in-a-trench/ (http://topveg.com/2009/07/growing-celery-in-a-trench/)
or
http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about426.html (http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about426.html)
We grow self-blanching - it is much easier. Just dug our first 4 at the weekend. They are quite reasonable - a good size and edible (i.e. for eating raw as well as using in stews).
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when you all plant them in blocks how close do you space them?
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I grew Utah a couple of years back and found it to be one of the best i had grown.
The only Celery i have grown this year is Ideal.
As said manure water and slug pellets get you good results, growing them with collars there is no need to grow them in blocks which means you can stagger them.
[attachment=1]
Like the collars Davy. As you say one could pop small blocks around the place - in the dampest parts. Do you think it matters how many plants to a collar?
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you guys have peaked my interest again re growing these (failed 2 yrs running 2007 and 2008 very wet summers) and was thinking of digging a trench and lining it with empty compost bags to help retain lots of moisture around the roots, has anyone tried this, do you all think it would work/ help. might be an idea for the celeriac as well.
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our celeriac is growing under the runner beans in a trench, they seem to be doing well :)
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the more questions that are asked the more I'm thinking 12 out of 10 !! But I'm sure all the extra info will help me (and others) in the end :-\
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when you all plant them in blocks how close do you space them?
approx. 9 inches apart
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when you all plant them in blocks how close do you space them?
approx. 9 inches apart
tah :)
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I keep reading that they like lots of water, but exactly how much are we talking about. Say for 12 plants a watering can a day??
Thanks
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I keep reading that they like lots of water, but exactly how much are we talking about. Say for 12 plants a watering can a day??
Thanks
Assuming a reasonable-sized watering can (2 gallons) it sounds ok.
We have about 20 plants and our watering regime is 2 cans per day ... but not absolutely every day as there are one or two days per week when we do not go to the plot.
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Thanks for that BAK, that's a bit of reassurance for me - as I also don't get to the plot every day.
I've been giving this some thought and thinking about the needs of the celery I'm going to try the self blanching variety (I think I have enough work cut out with earthing up spuds..) and will create a trench for them with lots of well rotted manure / anything else organic I can get my mitts on, and then mulch with manure / grass / straw. Where I did this on the dwarf beans this year the ground underneath the roots etc was still damp, whereas other areas on my plot were bone dry.
Thanks again
1066