My Fall Tango Celery Garden - And A Question? (pics)

[rnewste]

Wow, waiting for Celery to grow - - is like watching paint dry.

I started seeds on June 6 using the coffee filter / zip-lock bag, then transplanted them into 36 cell packs on June 29.



Very slow to gain any size. Transplanted them again to 18 cell-pack trays on August 29:



I prepped three EarthTainers with 1 cup dolomite Lime, 2 cups 14-14-14 CRF fertilizer, 1/3 cup Humic Acid, and 1/3 cup ActinoIron. In addition, I added in to 'Tainer #1 one-half cup Epsom Salts, in 'Tainer #2 one cup, and in 'Tainer #3 a total of 2 cups Epsom Salts.



As I grew 36 seedlings, I put them in each 'Tainer with 3 rows of 4 plants each on September 20. This equates to about 6 inches spacing between plants.



I am now going to band them up to keep them from sprawling out too much:



To my question, you can see the rubber-band on the left plant. How tightly should I pull the stalks together as they grow? Supermarket celery appears to be grown very tight as the stalks are interleaved. Should I do this with home-grown celery, or should I leave them bunched loosely?

So, to my calculation, I should have mature Celery sometime near Thanksgiving Day - - which will be just in time for my homemade turkey dressing.

One other "treat" is when sitting out on the deck near them, the pungent aroma of this Celery is quite intoxicating. Even if I never get a mature crop this Fall, the wafting smell has been worth it all.

Raybo

[salix]

Can't help you there, Ray - I have never banded them, just let 'em grow free. Haven't actually found them to sprawl very much, though. I harvest them during the season a stalk at a time (sort of like leaf lettuce), so my lazy system works for me. I think you should experiment, try loose, semi - tight and fairly tight - then post and let us know which worked best for you. I suspect the tightly banded will be more blanched and mild in flavour. My loosey goosey stalks are very dark green, so a little goes a long way.

[lakelady]

hmmm...I just got som Brydon's Prize Red seeds..maybe I should plant in the kitchen for the aroma?

I would think keeping them bunched would produce something more tender and blanched-like? Just my thoughts and of course, I have never grown celery so I'm talking out of my hat lol...

[rnewste]

lakelady,

I do encourage you to grow some in the kitchen window. I have 3 Tango plants growing in our garden window:



And the aroma in the kitchen with the fresh celery is wonderful.

I've now started some Kintsai Celery seeds, which is a dark variety for use in cooking:



I'm using the coffee filter / zip-lok bag method to germinate them before planting them in their pots. Looking forward to their aroma as well.

Also have started Cilantro, Thai Red Basil, Hiro Haba (Chinese Leek), and Mitsuba (Japanese Parsley) in the garden windows, so the kitchen this year should have some interesting aromas over the Winter.

Raybo