celeriac - can I leave over winter?

[Karen Atkinson]

are they fully hardy? can I just leave in the ground?

[Karen Atkinson]

[saddad]

They will survive for a while yet... but aren't fully hardy... anything below -5c and you will loose them. We lost ours in the cold last Winter.  :'(

[grawrc]

Unbelievably the two I forgot about last autumn survived 4 months of deep snow but then promptly went to seed in the springtime. Very pretty they were too but quite inedible.

[Karen Atkinson]

thanks..do they store okay?

[saddad]

Like most roots they are happiest "clamped" ie stored in sand/compost to prevent them drying out too much.  :)

[chriscross1966]

Mine were OK until around February left in the ground... some frostbite on the top surface but they were big enough that even when that was cut out there was plenty left..... Mine are monsters this year, the leaves are 4 feet tall at least, adn they haven't had epic amounts of fertiliser, just lots of water, they're on the greenhouse autowatering feed and get 90 minutes a day through leaky pipe wound through the bed....

chrisc

[Alex133]

I'm envious Chrisc, mine are about the size of golfballs and I've tried to water them a lot.

[louise stella]

I weeded mine today and fed them - they are coming on nicely!  They have a bit of growing to do yet though!  They are one of my favourite winter root vegetables!

[chriscross1966]

I'm envious Chrisc, mine are about the size of golfballs and I've tried to water them a lot.

Dunno how big the roots are, just that the top growth is huge.... If they scale up from the size the parsnips are next to them then they'll be spacehoppers, but I rather doubt it.... anythign much bigger than a big grapefruit is a bit pointless for me anyway.....