Growing stalked celery from seeds, planting and proper care

Growing stalked celery with excellent qualities is not a very simple matter, and caring for it has its own characteristics. Due to the fact that celery seeds germinate for a long time, and the stem slowly builds up volume, seedlings are planted in open ground... It is necessary to take care of the plant regularly, without violating the technology, - only then the stem will turn out to be juicy, crunchy and without a bitter aftertaste.

Growing celery seedlings

It is impossible to be late with the term of growing celery seedlings. The later the seeds sprout, the later the seedlings are planted in open ground, the thinner the cuttings will be for celery. They will not have time to increase the volume before the autumn frosts, because the ripening period for celery is long - from 90 to 150 days, depending on the variety. Sowing seeds for seedlings is carried out from late February to mid-March. In warmer regions, the best sowing time is February, in colder regions, March.

Due to the high content of essential oils, the seeds sprout slowly and not amicably. Germination can be accelerated by soaking them in very warm water, the temperature of which is + 55-60 ° C, before sowing. The water is changed several times - after it has cooled to room temperature. After the last soak, the seeds are washed in cool water.

Germination can be increased if the seeds are germinated. There are two ways to do this.

1. Place a damp cloth on the bottom of the container. Seeds are laid out in a thin layer. To create the desired microclimate, the container is covered with glass or cling film. The place for germination should be warm, + 25 ° С. Airing is carried out regularly. The fabric is often moistened and should not be allowed to dry out.
2. Well-moistened sawdust mixed with clean sand is poured into a shallow container. The seeds are scattered over the surface of the sawdust. Further, as in the first method, cover with glass, put in a warm place, periodically ventilate and moisten.

The soil for seedlings is chosen as nutritious and loose. It is poured into boxes and grooves are made 0.5 cm deep at a distance of 3 cm from each other. The seeds are laid out on the bottom of the grooves, slightly pressing them to the soil. You can not sprinkle the earth on top. Sprouted seeds must be sown carefully, trying not to damage the sprout.

Advice

It is convenient to use a match to place the germinated seeds in the seed boxes. Its end is moistened and the seeds adhere easily to the wet part. This makes sowing easier and prevents the seedlings from breaking off.

The soil must be constantly moistened, this must be monitored. Until the first leaves appear, the seedlings must be covered with cling film. After their appearance, the film is removed, and after a week the box is transferred to a cool, bright place. The optimum air temperature is + 15 ° С. Under these conditions, celery seedlings will grow strong and will not stretch out.

When 3-4 true leaves appear, the seedlings dive. It is best to place them in separate containers, and if this is not possible, then in a larger box at a distance of 4x4 cm from each other. Watering the seedlings is abundant, regular, but excess water must be drained through the drainage holes.

A week before planting in open ground, the seedlings begin to harden, taking them out into the sun.

Planting celery in the garden

You can plant stalked celery in an open field in mid-May. The garden bed is prepared in 10 days: all weeds with roots are removed, well-rotted manure is introduced, dug up and leveled.

On the day of planting, grooves are prepared with a depth of 10 cm at a distance of 30-40 cm from one another.The soil in containers with celery should be moist, this will prevent it from crumbling during transplantation. If the soil does not lag behind the walls of the cups, you can draw a thin knife between the walls and a lump of earth. Planting should be carried out slightly deeper than the seedlings were in the container, but the point of growth of the leaves should not be deepened. In one row, there should be a distance of 15 cm between plants.

Celery is planted densely so that as little light as possible falls on the base of the stem - this increases its nutritional value and improves taste. Leaves, on the contrary, should be in bright light, through them the process of photosynthesis will take place.

Planting stalk celery well next to cabbage, it prevents the appearance of such pests as cabbage whites on it. Celery is also a desirable neighbor for tomatoes.

Care

Until the celery has grown, it is necessary to prevent the growth of weeds. For the first month, celery grows slowly and can be drowned out by weeds. After the stems began to thicken, hilling must be carried out. If the plantings are thickened, then the soil for hilling should not be taken from the same beds, so as not to damage the plants growing nearby. It is better to cover the base of the stem with turf or compost. When hilling, the stem remains white.

Before hilling, small petioles that will no longer have time to gain weight are removed. The rest are tied at the level of the leaves so that they do not break when they are covered with earth.

Watering should be constantly monitored. The soil should not dry out, but it should not block the base of the celery either.

Excessive dryness of the soil will lead to the fact that the stem changes its characteristics:

• will cease to be juicy and elastic,
• will crack
• will acquire bitterness;
• the structure of the stem will be fibrous;
• the plant will release a peduncle arrow and begin to set seeds.

With excessive moisture, the stems can begin to rot, and this also increases the likelihood of fungal diseases.

Top dressing is important for celery. The first time is fed two to three weeks after planting. Prepare a solution of mullein (1 part of fertilizer to 10 parts of water) or bird droppings (1 part of fertilizer to 20 parts of water). The second time they feed it three weeks later with complex mineral fertilizer, but the percentage of nitrogen in it should be minimal. With an excess of nitrogen in the soil, the petioles can crack in the same way as with a lack of watering.

At the end of July, in order to protect the celery from greening, the stems must be wrapped in thick paper. You can use corrugated cardboard, paper wallpaper, craft paper. It is undesirable for the paper to contain inscriptions made with typographic ink. For wrapping, you can use agrofibre of both white and black colors of maximum density. The main thing is that air passes through the material used for wrapping.

The entire stem must be protected from sunlight up to the point where foliage begins to grow. The paper is wrapped so that there is a small gap, but at the same time it does not dangle from the wind. The protection is not removed until the harvest itself.

Leaves can be selectively harvested from each plant during the season for use as food. They can be eaten fresh or dried for the winter.

If necessary, the petioles can be harvested at the end of summer. At the same time, the largest ones are broken off, but no more than 5 pieces per plant. The main harvest begins in September. First, the largest plants are dug, the rest can ripen until October.

If the dug out celery is placed in the basement, having dug the roots into wet sand, then it can be stored for up to two months. Excess stalk celery can be frozen. After defrosting, they are stewed, baked and used for the first courses.

Trench method of growing celery

If there is enough space on the site, then celery can be grown by the trench method. The cultivation is carried out in stages.

1. Trenches 30 cm deep and 20 cm wide are being prepared. There should be a distance of at least 70 cm between the trenches for convenience.
2. When digging, all the soil is folded into a mound along the trench, on the north side. It will serve as protection from cold weather in spring and early summer.
3. A mixture of earth with humus is poured at the bottom.
4. Seedlings are planted in the center of the trench, at a distance of 15-20 cm between the plants.
5. At first, care is carried out in the same way as with a normal planting.
6. After the stem begins to thicken, the first filling of the trench is carried out. The soil is taken from a mound and covered with celery to the foliage.
7. Hilling is carried out several times, until all the soil dug out of the trench is used up.
8. In autumn, harvesting is carried out carefully so as not to damage the stems.

When grown in this way, the stem is white, juicy, and there is no bitterness. In addition, it is not necessary to wrap the stems with this method.

Self-bleaching varieties

The stems of common varieties require bleaching or they become unusable. Currently, varieties have been bred that do not require such care - they are juicy, crunchy without much effort.

Despite this advantage, these varieties have a significant disadvantage:

• they are afraid of even light frost;
• have a short shelf life.

It is necessary to harvest the crop immediately, without waiting for the onset of cold weather. If the weather forecast promises a drop in temperature already at the beginning of September, then all the celery should be harvested, even if the stems have not yet grown the required volume of all the plants. The collected self-bleaching celery stalks are not stored for a long time. If they are wrapped in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator, then the maximum shelf life is two weeks.

Output

Growing quality stalked celery requires constant care. Top dressing and watering should be carried out regularly, and without bleaching the petioles lose quality and taste. If it is impossible to spend a lot of time caring for celery, self-bleaching varieties can be grown. Due to the short shelf life, it is not necessary to plant a lot of it. It is enough to plant a few bushes so that you can use them within two to three weeks.