Growing Celery
Tips for growing celery.
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While celery makes it to most kitchen tables for use as an ingredient in soups and salads, its above average growing difficulty means it often gets neglected as a garden vegetable.
Growing celery can be an exercise in patience because it takes around four months to grow from seed to table. Additionally, its cold weather nature means that air temperatures should not exceed 75oF during the growing season.
Soil Conditions: Celery requires healthy, well-drained soil in the pH 6-7 range.
Planting Tips: Germinating the seeds indoors about two months before the last frost kicks off the process. Follow the directions on the seed pack carefully because celery seeds can be finicky. Seed germination can take up to two weeks and is followed by a thinning process.
Spacing: When the plants are ready for transplantation, place them in the soil about six inches apart, allowing the leaves to remain above ground for each plant.
Plant Care: Insure the plants get adequate water and fertilizer throughout the growing season. At the stalks grow, they can be loosely wrapped in brown paper to keep the stalks together.
Harvesting Tips: Test for table readiness by by cutting one of the outer stalks.
© 2009. Patricia A. Michaels