How to plant celery root correctly. Celery root: planting and care

Good day to all readers!

Let's talk today about how to grow root celery through seedlings. Otherwise, in our short summer conditions, it simply will not have time to grow. This plant has a two-year development cycle. In the first year, a root crop with leaves grows, and in the second year, celery produces flower stalks and forms seeds. It is better to choose an early variety; they ripen 120-150 days after planting the seedlings. Now more about

Growing Celery Root

Main points of cultivation:

• Seed preparation
• soil preparation and timing
• Sowing
• Transplanting seedlings and care
• Planting in open ground
• Fertilizer
• Useful tips

Celery root Seed preparation

Celery, like many aromatic plants (parsley, etc.), takes a very long time to germinate its seeds. We need to help them speed up germination. You can simply soak the seeds in water or use the methods described in the article.

Soil preparation and timing

They begin to sow root celery in February and early March. Later is not recommended, as the roots may not have time to gain mass. Add sand, humus, and ash to the garden soil and fill the seedling container with this mixture. We water the earth well, let the excess drain and let the earth stand.

Sowing

Then we compact the soil a little, draw rows and sow the seeds. There is no need to cover it with soil; let it germinate in the light. Cover the container with glass or film and place it in a warm, bright place. Ventilate regularly and sprinkle with water to prevent the seeds from drying out. After germination, you need to place the seedlings in a cool place so that they do not stretch.

Transplanting seedlings and care Seedlings can be picked

After a pair of true leaves appears at the seedlings, they are planted in separate cups or thinned out directly in the box to a distance of 4 cm between the sprouts. When transplanting, do not bury the base of the leaves; they should be at ground level. Celery should be watered regularly, but not overwatered. When sowing in February, be sure to provide extra light to the seedlings so that they do not stretch out.

Planting in open ground

Root celery is a cold-resistant plant and can easily tolerate cold spells and even slight frosts in the fall. But young plants do not like frost. If planted early in cold soil, the peduncle may be thrown away and the roots will not work.

They are planted in open ground in May. It is better to install arcs after planting and cover them with covering material for a couple of weeks to ensure good growth of seedlings. Choose a bright place.

It's time to plant in open ground, 5-6 leaves

To obtain good large root crops, plantings should not be thickened. Leave at least 30 cm between rows and 20-25 cm between plants. We also make sure that the rosette of leaves is at soil level when planting.

When the roots become 1.5-2 cm in diameter, rake the soil from them and cut off the thickest roots, then sprinkle the soil back. The root will quickly begin to pour. This technique is carried out several times two or three times at the beginning of growth, the plants almost do not get sick.

Fertilizer

At the beginning of growth, root celery is fed with nitrogen fertilizer, but do not get carried away. We want to get good “roots”, not big tops. Root crops love potassium fertilizers, and this, as you know, is wood ash. In July and August, water the celery with a solution of ash (2 cups per bucket of water).

When preparing the soil, do not apply fresh manure! It makes celery heads bearded.

Root celery

When loosening the bed, do not cover the plant with soil, but rake a little away from the roots. Especially in the second half of summer, when the root begins to form.

Keep the beds moist and avoid long breaks in watering. To do this, it is good to mulch the ground with hay, straw or grass.

For better plant development, water them several times during the summer with herbal infusion. It is very good to make nettle infusion. A bucket of chopped greens is filled with water and allowed to ferment for two weeks. When watering, add a glass to a bucket of water. You can water all vegetables with this solution.

For better root formation, do not tear off the leaves in the summer, but cut off a few outer ones in the fall.

To avoid shaggy roots at the end of summer, the plants are not fed with nitrogen fertilizers and the soil is raked away from the plants.

Be sure to provide a humid environment. Only with constant moisture will the celery heads turn out juicy, tasty and aromatic.

Celery roots are harvested before the onset of frost in October. Carefully pull it out of the ground, trying not to damage the skin. All roots are cut off without damaging the root crop; the tops are trimmed, leaving 2 cm. They are stored, like other roots, in the cellar at low temperatures around 0°C.

Depending on the type of celery, you can use leaves, petioles or roots for food. The most common and favorite is root celery, the cultivation of which has its own subtleties. Even professional gardeners do not always manage to grow a plant the first time - this is a troublesome and difficult task. If you follow certain rules and conditions, you can get a wonderful harvest, no worse than on supermarket shelves.

Moreover, by growing the root vegetable yourself, you won’t have to worry about how environmentally friendly it is. And in terms of juiciness, richness of taste and aroma, it is far ahead of its store-bought relatives. Plus, if stored properly, this vegetable will retain its elasticity and taste almost until the spring of next year. And although few gardeners know how to grow root celery, you can and should try to do it on your own plot.

Preparing the soil on the site

To protect yourself from disappointment, first of all, you need to pay close attention to the autumn preparation of the soil for planting and the choice of seeds. To achieve the maximum size of root barrels, the plant needs fertile soil rich in humus and a sunny place. Already in the fall you need to prepare the bed by adding as much compost or rotted manure as possible.

Celery grows best in well-lit, light sandy loam soils rich in humus. Poor sandy, rocky, acidic and marshy areas are completely unsuitable. If the soil is acidic, it needs to be limed and well seasoned with organic and mineral fertilizer. The best predecessors are cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage.

Choosing celery varieties

There are many varieties of celery, among them are: Monarch, Diamond, President, Gribovsky, Yablochny. When choosing, pay attention to the ripening time of root crops; they can be early-ripening, mid-ripening and late-ripening. All varieties are grown by seedlings.

For example, Monarch- a modern variety of late ripening within 200-210 days. The root vegetable has cream-colored flesh and a smoother skin than other varieties. Its main advantage is the formation of a large head up to 800 grams and resistance to viruses.

Variety Apple- early ripening, technical ripeness occurs on the 140th day. It produces a round fruit weighing 80-140 grams with white flesh that has good taste.

Growing celery root from seedlings

To begin with, you should take care of a clean container for seedlings, otherwise you risk losing the entire crop even before planting it in the ground. You can get rid of pathogens in old pots, plastic cups and containers by thoroughly washing them with warm water and soaking them in a solution of potassium permanganate. It is better to burn wooden boxes with fire or treat them with a more saturated potassium permanganate. But it is most effective to grow seedlings in peat tablets.

We prepare the substrate for seedlings from turf soil, humus and clean sand (1: 1: 0.5). Fertilizer application is not required at this stage.

Now it’s time to prepare the seeds: they must be fresh, because they tend to quickly lose their germination capacity. Planted in mid-February and in the first ten days of March, sowing two or three seeds in each pot. The seeds contain large quantities of essential oils, which prevent rapid germination, so soaking in warm water will significantly speed up germination.

It is advisable to change the water every five to six hours. Sowing with swollen seeds, previously dried until they flow, reduces the germination time by 4-5 days. The seed of any type of celery is very small: when sowing, it is not buried, but simply slightly pressed into moist soil. Cover the top with film and place it in a bright place, do not forget to ventilate.

Maintaining temperature conditions is the key to strong seedlings and an excellent harvest. Before the first shoots, the ambient temperature should be 20-22 O C, then when sprouts appear, we reduce the temperature to 18-20 O C. The shoots can additionally be illuminated with a fluorescent lamp. In each glass we leave one, the strongest plant.

As soon as the seedlings have acquired two true leaves, we dive them, shortening the central root by a third of the length. Try not to over-moisten the soil to avoid rotting and fungal diseases.

In the phase of four true leaves (approximately mid-May), the seedlings are planted in beds in open ground, again removing 1/3 of the root. The planting density of plants in a row is 30-35 cm and in row spacing is 40-45 cm. You can add 1 tbsp to the holes. l. ash, mix with soil and spill with water. One nuance - never bury the growth bud, otherwise you will not get a good, large tuber. It needs to be planted in the afternoon. A sharp cold snap can lead to bolting, so worry about possible frosts in advance.

Root celery care and harvesting

In the future, growing root celery comes down to fertilizing the soil, watering and loosening. The first two months of feeding include complex fertilizers, from the end of July to August - phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. We keep the soil moist and constantly loosen it until the foliage closes above the bed. Then you can simply mulch the soil surface, creating optimal conditions for tuber growth. We remove senescent leaves regularly.

At the beginning of August, you need to rake away the soil from each root crop and use scissors to cut off the lateral roots that have formed in the upper part. Thus, half of the fruit will appear on the surface, which will provide a beautiful presentation in the future. Celery begins to gain the bulk of its weight in September, so it is better to leave it in the garden until the first frost, which the plant can withstand down to –7 O C.

Root crops are usually dug up in October, cleared of soil, and roots and leaves are trimmed. The fruits are then dried in the open air. The harvested crop is stored in wooden boxes with sand, installed in a cool place. Root celery has good keeping quality and excellent taste. Believe in your strength, and treats from this root vegetable will never run out on your table.

Growing celery in the country is not particularly difficult, which means we can take on board the advice of experts, master agricultural technology and begin work that promises us good results.

Perhaps we should start with what culture is. It is a member of the Apiaceae family, a vegetable crop and herbaceous plant that can be biennial or perennial. More than twenty plant species are found throughout the world.

Most often, in our country, biennial specimens are grown, which bear fruit in the form of roots and greenery in the first year, and in the second they bloom and form fruit with seeds.

Types of celery

First of all, I would like to outline the main types that we will talk about today. These are leaf, petiole and root celery.

Growing leaf celery makes it possible to obtain green and juicy plant leaves that can be cut throughout the warm period.

The cultivation of the petiole variety is practiced by summer residents, as well as large trading enterprises that work with fresh herbs in order to obtain juicy petioles of the plant for preparing a variety of dishes and even alcoholic cocktails.

Growing root celery helps to obtain roots, which in a good season can be up to 600-800 g per plant.

Varieties for planting in the country

Each individual variety differs not only in appearance, but also in taste and area of ​​application of the plant.

At the moment, quite a few individual varieties are known, but the following are in greatest demand:

• Leaf celery – Tender, Kartuli, Vigor, Zakhar;
• petiole - Young, Malachite, Golden, White feather;
• root - Maxim, Diamant, Esaul, Gribovsky, Yablochny.

Among the presented plant varieties, you can choose absolutely any one, since by creating certain conditions and observing agricultural cultivation techniques, you can get good results. But pay attention to which plant variety is most suitable for you, early or late.

How to grow celery in the country

The plant prefers quiet places with fertile soil and good light. But a good harvest is also quite possible on slightly acidic soils, in partial shade; in this case, you will not lose in the harvest, but will only get some changes, for example, a change in the aroma of celery leaves.

Growing in open ground

Leaf celery is considered a fairly cold-resistant plant that can tolerate frost or even overwinter as an adult without loss. At the very beginning of its development, it grows weakly, and this is very noticeable. This happens due to small seeds and their not very good germination, and therefore, experienced summer residents prefer growing leaf celery with seedlings.

Seed preparation

In order to change the germination of seeds for the better, they need to be prepared. To do this, the seeds are soaked in a special solution, for example, a weak solution of potassium permanganate, and left for several hours. Afterwards they are germinated on moistened gauze for several days.

Sowing Leaf Celery Seeds

When the seeds are prepared, they can be sown in a special soil mixture. The best mixture for this is considered to be a mixture of sand, leaf soil, humus and peat, proportions 1:1:1:1. Sowing is carried out in early March, in ready-made wooden boxes with the specified soil mixture. The seeds should be sown shallowly and covered with a sprinkle of peat. Next, for almost a week, until the seeds sprout, you will be required to maintain a stable ambient temperature within the range of +17+20°C. After the seeds sprout, the temperature should be lowered to +15°C. Growing seedlings requires clearly defined daylight hours, a certain temperature regime and careful, timely watering (preferably through a sieve); only in this case will the seedlings be strong and suitable for transfer to open ground. If you make mistakes, the greenery may simply grow. At the moment when a young plant produces two true leaves, it should be plucked with pinching of the main root, which will contribute to the confident development of the root system of the seedlings. Transfer to open ground occurs in April or early May, planting pattern - 25-25 cm.

Plant care

Experts in growing celery say that the plant should not be planted very deep in the ground so that the growing point is on the surface. After planting, caring for the crop itself is very simple and does not take up much time.

First of all, ensure timely removal of weeds between the rows of planted plants, as well as systematic watering. To prevent a crust from forming and stagnating on the soil surface, which is not good for the celery, it is constantly loosened, preferably after each watering. But in order to reduce time costs, you can mulch the soil, which will allow it to retain the amount of moisture necessary for the growth and development of the crop, eliminate the lush growth of weeds inside the celery bed, as well as the formation of crust. By adhering to the correct growing technology, you will be able to harvest in mid-July - early August.

Growing Celery Root

Due to the very long growing season, it is advisable to grow only by seedling method. Growing from seeds occurs in almost the same way as in the case of leaf celery, you just need to plant the crop a month earlier, having first prepared the seeds well.

Also, there are certain features of growing root celery, including double picking when transplanting seedlings, proper preparation of seedlings and fertilizers to enhance growth and provide strength for the season.

We also recommend that you think about the type of plant from which you need the root. Of course, you can also collect leaves during the growth process, but it is worth limiting the amount of collection to a minimum, since only at the end of the season will the main organic substances from the leaves begin to accumulate in the root crops. Otherwise, you will not be able to get a good harvest.

Celery root care

Care is practically no different from caring for the leafy species, which means loosen the soil and systematically water the plants, arrange mulch in the celery bed and remove weeds that may appear near planting.

The agricultural technology for growing root celery has some features, and the most important of them, which can affect the quality of the root crop, is the hilling of the fruit during growth. This is strictly prohibited; even clearing the top part of the root crop from soil is recommended.

Harvesting requires some preparation. 15-20 days before the start of harvesting, it is necessary to tear off the side leaves of the plant and further rake away the soil from the top of the fruit. Then, after the required period, around mid-October, you can begin to harvest.

Growing petiole celery

Initially, growing petiole celery from seeds to seedlings is no different from growing the leaf variety, but then, when planting seedlings in open ground, there are some peculiarities.

The seedlings are transferred into the soil, into grooves that exceed the planting depth of leaf celery; their depth is about 10 cm. The apical bud is also not covered with soil, but after the start of intensive growth, when the petioles begin to thicken significantly, hilling is carried out. Throughout the growing season, even several hillings are possible.

Thus, the juicy green petioles are freed from possible bitterness and become more tender; the growing method has the original name - bleaching the petioles. Bleaching is supported by another special technique: 12-14 days before harvesting, the petioles are tied into a single bundle and wrapped in paper, and the celery is removed before frost.

Thus, growing petiole celery from seedlings, general agricultural technology and harvesting are practically no different from other types of celery, except for the moment of hilling and wrapping with bleaching paper.

Diseases and pests

All the work of a gardener can be nullified due to pests and diseases that attack plants throughout the entire ripening period. Proper agricultural technology, as well as prevention, can resist them.

To prevent the spread of bacterial spot, heart rot, white stem rot, viral mosaic, black leg and celery stem rot in the garden and in plants, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the basic norms of growing the plant. Among them are only timely watering, avoiding waterlogging of the soil, thick planting, and also the spread of weeds in the garden bed. Standard celery pests can also be carriers of diseases: cutworms, carrot fly larvae, various snails and slugs, which should be gotten rid of in a timely manner through prevention and spraying.

Also, mixed planting, for example with other herbaceous plants or vegetables, can be an excellent method of preventing crop loss.

Video about growing celery

Proper agricultural technology will allow you to get a good harvest of celery almost anywhere. Naturally, some climatic conditions are not entirely suitable for growing this crop, but then you can grow it at home - prepare seeds, grow seedlings, apply transplants, provide care and get the desired harvest.

Reviews and comments

Oksana Dmitrievna 10/23/2014

Hello! I share my interesting experience of obtaining a rich harvest. I got it interview with Doctor of Agricultural Sciences Mikhail Chursin and inspired by the article, I decided to use his recommendations, and you know, I was right... All summer we ate cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden, and also prepared some for ourselves and our family for the winter. For those interested, here it is Natalya 12/12/2017

This year I tried to grow petiole celery. I bought seeds and sowed them. Unfortunately, all I got all season was thin, frail stems. In November, however, they became stronger, but still the sizes were far from being the same as those sold in the store. And then winter began. Apparently the mistake was that I immediately sowed it in open ground; I had to first grow the seedlings.

Victoria 12/28/2017

I add celery to borscht and meat broth, I really like its taste and aroma. I haven’t used this vegetable before, but now it’s always on the menu, fortunately it’s available both in the store and on the market. And from petiole celery I make a light salad with sweet peppers, apples and oranges. What a combination!

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Celery root is an integral component of many culinary dishes and medicinal preparations. It is actively used in many areas of people's lives. How is this simple plant grown? We will try to answer this question in this article.

. This is the reason for the inclusion of celery in the preparation of culinary masterpieces, both in Russia and abroad.

Celery is used by experienced cooks as a seasoning and as an independent ingredient.

Thanks to its excellent qualities, vegetable and meat dishes sound completely new. The plant organs are good in preparing various salads, baking or as a boiled side dish. Even the root of the plant has found uses in cooking. The plant contains large amounts of phosphorus and calcium.

In addition, celery is a storehouse of the following vitamins:

Celery has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the stomach. The essential oils it contains, which give food a unique aroma and unsurpassed taste, accelerate the secretory function of the stomach and stimulate appetite. Celery plants are low in calories, which means they are ideal for people on various diets.

The advantage of this plant is that it contains special substances that help reduce the production of cortisol in the body, a hormonal compound that causes stress.

In folk medicine, celery has long been used as a rejuvenating and tonic. In addition, eating celery in its raw form helps rid the body of many diseases.

Growing celery is quite a troublesome task, but the resulting effect is worth the effort. The first step in growing this plant is preparing the seeds. Celery seeds are quite fragile to many factors and quite capricious.

Every gardener should know that a feature of celery seeds is the rapid loss of germination.

If you find such seeds on your farm and are not sure that they are from the last year of formation, you should not use them, as you may not wait for the shoots. The same result can expect you when purchasing seeds in a store if they indicate the year of collection rather than last year.

To avoid such troubles, try to buy seeds no later than the last year of collection or collect your own annually. Buy seeds in well-known stores, do not buy products of dubious quality!

How to properly prepare celery seeds for planting:

The outer skin of celery seed is impregnated with certain types of essential oils that protect its contents from exposure to adverse factors.

In addition to protection, these essential oils significantly slow down seed germination. Therefore, in order to quickly obtain seedlings, the prepared seeds need to be soaked for some time, usually a day or two, in water at room temperature.

Seed germination can be achieved by keeping them in a damp cloth for some time without access to sunlight. Sun rays can dry out the seeds. When artificially germinating seeds, carefully monitor the moisture content of the fabric, which can be sprayed a little if necessary.

When soaking seeds, you should periodically replace the water in which the celery seeds are placed.

Do not keep the seeds in water for a long time, they may completely swell and lose their germination capacity.

As soon as the seed sprouts, you can place it in the soil to obtain seedlings.

To get celery root seedlings you need:

• Sow pre-sprouted seeds in prepared soil. The soil should be stored in the fall, preferably coarse-textured, black. It perfectly absorbs moisture and allows air to reach the roots. If you haven’t stocked up on soil in the fall, then you should purchase it in specialized stores.
• To obtain root celery seedlings, you can prepare the soil yourself. You should mix two parts of humus with six parts of peat, add a little mullein and sprinkle with one part of turf soil. This nutritious soil for seedlings can also be prepared in the fall and stored at home. To increase soil fertility, add a little vermicompost to the prepared soil, and to increase air permeability, add a little sand to the soil.
• It is recommended to plant root celery seeds to obtain seedlings from early February to mid-March. At this time, when all the surrounding nature is still asleep, the seeds will have time to germinate and transform into excellent seedlings before the onset of the summer season.
• Sprouted celery root seeds are placed in prepared soil, usually it occupies a box, in rows with a distance of two centimeters between them. To make it easier to place seeds into the soil, many gardeners use toothpicks or matches. They are used to make small holes in the soil, into which the seeds are subsequently placed. Then carefully take some soil and sprinkle the seeds on top.
• To speed up the production of seedlings, the sown seeds are covered with film. It is recommended to place the box with seedlings in a warm place where the sun's rays do not penetrate. Periodically check the emergence of seedlings, and if necessary, spray the soil in the box to maintain its moisture.

On average, after one week from the moment the seeds are sown in the soil, seedlings appear. As soon as you have discovered the emerging shoots, the box in which the root celery seedlings are located must be brought out into the light. The sun's rays are needed by seedlings for the process of photosynthesis, during which the seedlings will begin to actively grow. A window sill will be a bright place for a box with seedlings.

Cool temperatures on the windowsill will encourage seedlings to harden.

The optimum temperature for root celery seedlings is sixteen degrees Celsius. It is not recommended to keep seedlings at lower temperatures, as they may not show active growth and a large harvest.

Celery shoots look like thin blades of grass that easily bend and break even from the wind. To maintain their integrity, watering should be done by spraying the seedlings with a spray bottle.

With the appearance of true leaves on the seedlings, usually two appear at the same time, the process of picking seedlings can be carried out. To do this you should:

Pick up each seedling, placing it in an individual pot. When diving on seedlings, it is necessary to pinch the main root in the area of ​​one third of the part. Picked seedlings are covered with soil to the level of the first two leaves, but the growth point is not allowed to fall asleep.

Before planting young plants in open ground, many gardeners fertilize the seedlings. It is prepared from organic or mineral fertilizers. An infusion of bird droppings is also an excellent fertilizer for seedlings. In urban conditions, fertilizing is carried out with a humate solution purchased in stores or with special complex fertilizers.

To prevent the development of various pathogenic organisms on seedlings, you can spray them with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or, as people say, potassium permanganate. Pickled seedlings need to be watered as needed.

Ready root celery seedlings should be planted in open ground from mid-May. By this time, the soil has warmed up well and weather favorable for growth has established. Young root celery plants should be planted in the prepared beds, maintaining a distance between them of thirty centimeters.

Under no circumstances should plants be planted close to each other. In this case, you should not count on a bountiful harvest. Monitor the level of the growing point above the soil surface; it should not be buried. By following these simple rules, the resulting root vegetables will be quite large and appetizing.

Planted celery plants must be watered generously with water at room temperature.

The ideal time for planting root celery plants is a calm, warm evening or a cloudy day. In both cases, the plants will be deprived of exposure to harmful sunlight for some time and will be able to adapt to the conditions of open space. In the event of a cold spell at night, celery plants located in open ground should be covered. Cut plastic bottles are ideal for such purposes.

Root celery is a rather capricious plant, and in order to get a good harvest of its root crops you need to know some tricks of caring for it. Moisture-loving celery is demanding on the amount of moisture in the soil. Therefore, you should monitor this and prevent the soil in which it grows from drying out. All summer you need to water the plants abundantly, then the root crops will grow and develop well. Watering should be done with a gentle, quiet stream, directing it to the root.

Root celery plants should not be hilled. In some cases, it is necessary to rake off excess soil from root crops. This procedure should be especially carried out during the period of thickening of the plant roots.

Celery root we love all kinds of top dressing:

• On average, plants are fed up to four times during growth.
• Using fertilizing at the beginning of summer, when the plant is in open ground, stimulates the strengthening of its root system.
• Subsequent feedings promote the growth of the root crop itself.
• Usually, after ten days from planting seedlings, celery is fed with prepared herbal infusion. Subsequently, an infusion of chicken manure or an infusion of mullein, rich in micro- and macroelements, is suitable for feeding.
• The last fertilizing can be done with superphosphate or boric acid.

Throughout the growth of celery, it is necessary to loosen the soil next to it. This procedure will have a great effect on the penetration of air and moisture to the roots of the plant.

For root celery plants, it is important to trim the lateral roots and leaves. Ridding plants of lateral roots that they do not need at all can be done while freeing the root crops from excess soil. This event contributes to the enlargement of root crops.

In the first ten days of September, you should start trimming the outer leaves from the plant. This will help stop the plant from wasting organic matter and send it directly to the root crop.

Harvesting can begin from the beginning of October until the middle of October. Even if the first frosts begin to appear at night, do not be afraid of celery root crops. Plants can withstand autumn cold temperatures down to three degrees below zero. Knowing these little tricks, you can get a bountiful harvest of celery root at minimal cost.

More information can be found in the video.

This vitamin-rich green has long been known and loved by gardeners for its excellent taste and medicinal properties. Growing and caring for celery in open ground will not be difficult even for beginners, if you follow simple rules of agricultural technology. But in return you can get tops, roots, and even petioles! True, for this you will have to plant celery of all three types.

General information about celery

Celery varieties are divided into three varieties - leaf, petiole and root. In the conditions of the middle zone, all species can be planted in seedlings, since this crop has a long growing season. In practice, only the last two are grown this way, and the leafy ones are sown directly into the ground in early spring or before winter.

Growing celery in open ground requires advance soil preparation. Beds for all types are prepared in the fall:

• contribute phosphorus and;
• add well-rotted manure or compost;
• add ash or dolomite flour for acidic soil;
• dig with a pitchfork, removing weed roots;
• form beds.

For planting in the ground, choose open sunny places. Recommended doses are indicated on the packaging; organic plants need an average bucket per square meter, and the amount of dolomite flour can be calculated based on the acidity level of the soil on the site. Add 350-450 g per square meter to a slightly acidic one; twice as much is needed for an acidic one. If the soil is alkaline, you can get by with adding 100-150 g to saturate it with calcium and magnesium.

Growing and caring for celery in open ground requires frequent watering and regular liquid feeding - mullein or nettle infusion.

If there is a lack of water, the leaves and petioles will be rough and fibrous, and the root crop will not reach the desired size.

When to sow seeds

Petiole and root types of celery are sown for seedlings in February or March. Late-ripening varieties should be sown earlier. Before planting, it is advisable to soak the seeds in a pink solution of potassium permanganate, rinse and place them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator for 10-12 days, wrapped in a damp cloth. In this way, celery seeds undergo stratification and subsequently germinate faster and more efficiently.

Time for planting in the ground

The weather will tell you when to plant celery in open ground. By the time the seedlings are planted, the soil should warm up to +8 degrees. In the middle zone this usually happens in mid-May. By this time, the seedlings should have several strong leaves, a developed root system and be hardened. To do this, it is regularly taken out to the balcony or street during the day.

Features of agricultural technology

Celery is planted in the ground in rows. The optimal distance between them is at least 50-60 cm, and between plants - 25 cm.

Plants planted too densely will not receive enough nutrients and light. After planting, the seedlings are watered abundantly.

In the future, for good growth and development, celery is regularly watered, weeds are removed and loosened.

Growing petiole celery in open ground has some peculiarities. Starting from the middle of the season, the bushes are lightly earthed up, and at the end of summer, when the petioles have almost reached a marketable state, they can be earthed up more strongly and wrapped in light paper.
These procedures are carried out in order to obtain bleached stems - they are more tender and juicier than non-bleached ones.

Growing root celery in open ground also has subtleties, without knowledge of which it is difficult to obtain an even and large root crop. Seedlings should be planted on the ridges without being buried.
After the plant begins to form roots, it is necessary to regularly tear off the outer leaves, carefully trim the side roots and ensure that only a few thick lower roots are in the ground. The soil is regularly raked and loosened from the roots. Otherwise, there is a high risk of getting a brush of roots instead of a rounded root vegetable. For normal growth, root celery only needs a few well-developed young leaves and the lowest roots.

When removing excess leaves and roots from root celery, we must not forget about regular fertilizing with organic fertilizers. Then the plant will form a large root crop.

When is celery harvested?

Harvesting of leaf celery begins as soon as the first greens grow. During the summer period it is cut several times. After cutting, the plant is watered and fed.

Harvesting of petiole and root species is carried out selectively, as individual bushes mature. It must be completed before the onset of autumn frosts, that is, until mid-October.

Video on growing celery root