Celery Transplanting

[bower]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

I grew parsley from fall to spring in AZ. It would bolt in spring but it's biennial,like parsley,so I'm not sure how it would do in a one season heat.
I had plenty of volunteers the next season and established a little permanent patch. Loved it and plan to do again here,just haven't had much time.
Love homemade celery and I really liked the cutting celery. Used the leaves like parsley for chicken soups and marinara sauce.
Lovage is something I'm really wanting to try. Should I plant in fall or spring in south central North Carolina?

In North Carolina you can probably do either.
I've had lovage so long I don't remember the details of planting, but pretty sure I started them indoors and then transplanted out in the spring. It's very hardy and the first thing up in spring time, but interesting to notice it has never self seeded in my garden. That makes me think that the seeds may be damaged by exposure to freezing or freeze/thaw. But I see that direct sowing in fall is one of the recommended methods, so I guess they're okay in the ground. And, this isn't North Carolina.

I love my parsely too and sometimes it overwinters or self sows here. My Mom's place is on the ocean and she has had great patches of parsely and cilantro as well, that self seeded without any care or need of protection. Dill in the same family though would not self seed here without protection. My friend's greenhouse is full of dill volunteers, for years now. But not outdoors. Maybe lovage is the same, a bit of a tender seed compared to some of the others.

[jmsieglaff]

Kath, do you let the celery mature and harvest the whole plant or do you harvest stalks as needed?

[kath]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Kath, do you let the celery mature and harvest the whole plant or do you harvest stalks as needed?

Both! With the earliest planting I harvest outside stalks, but when the next planting is mature enough I begin harvesting the early planting one plant at a time. Repeat through the year.

[luigiwu]

Kath, I'm always amazed by the people who have the discipline to do successive planting! I've never been able to successively plant ANYTHING!

[kath]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

Kath, I'm always amazed by the people who have the discipline to do successive planting! I've never been able to successively plant ANYTHING!

For me, it's not really a matter of discipline but of remembering; so I have a calendar that I use just for that purpose. Whenever I make my 1st sowing of whatever, I write it down and count ahead the # of days when it needs to be replanted and make a note. It gets used for spinach, lettuce, cilantro, corn, celery, beets, brassicas, etc.- anything that gets sown more than once.

[jmsieglaff]

So I sowed celery on Jan 10 and again on Feb 15 because I wasn't sure which sow date would yield best sized transplants. Below are the two sets, I'm thinking of planting out later this week. Celery growers, which would you plant out? I'm leaning to the bigger ones and holding back the other two in case they don't do well.

[jmsieglaff]

Here is a shot of the bigger plants roots in the bottom.

[kath]

Personally, I'd plant out the larger 2 first and wait for the others to get a bit bigger and then fit them in somewhere. I've read that super cold temps can make some varieties bolt, so that's why I'd hold the smaller 2 for later. You can harvest stalks from the outside of the plants but the first plants won't make it all through the season in my experience. The later ones will extend the harvest. You can sow new plants for fall planting, too.

kath

[jmsieglaff]

Thanks Kath! How hardy are celery transplants in your experience? Can they handle frost?

[kath]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Thanks Kath! How hardy are celery transplants in your experience? Can they handle frost?

I've planted large transplants out in April before- they were ok with frosts but I've covered them if hard freezes are predicted. Usually I wait until May but I don't wait until it's time for tomatoes to go out- they're hardier than that for sure.

kath

[Jeannine Anne]

Are they self blanching varieties or trench ones?

[Jeannine Anne]

Finally after some setbacks most of my delayed mail has arrived with seeds in. I can now sow a small yellow zucchini that vines up, my miniature broc has arrived..so we are progressing well. Still waiting for the green trailing zucchini to get here though.

[pmcgrady]

I just had someone give me a bunch of cement round tiles about 4" in diameter ...
Said they were used by an old man to grow celery in... Ever heard of this? I can see where the tiles will absorb water, but not sure what the old mans technique was. Celery loves lots of moisture and the concrete will hold it for a couple days...

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

Does celery bolt in the heat like lettuce? I've also been reading about a type of herb that has a celery type flavor? I'm particularly interested in growing plants this year that are flagged to be heavily doused with pesticide in the supermarkets..

It definitely was cool weather when I planted it in AZ. In fact,my second year I had a bunch of volunteer celery that came up probably early Feb. I grew it in part shade through the winter and it would bolt around March or April,just a bit past lettuce.
It should be fine in a cooler climate,though. As in anything cooler than AZ late spring.
I think it's biennial like parsley and carrots so it's also possible that growing it over winter gave me more chance of bolting.
Either way,it's well worth growing. I'd recommend Utah and cutting celery. Red celery was nice,too.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by kath

For me, it's not really a matter of discipline but of remembering; so I have a calendar that I use just for that purpose. Whenever I make my 1st sowing of whatever, I write it down and count ahead the # of days when it needs to be replanted and make a note. It gets used for spinach, lettuce, cilantro, corn, celery, beets, brassicas, etc.- anything that gets sown more than once.

Great idea. I will start doing this!