Sow Celery - You Won't Regret It

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Having once planted celery in your beds, it is highly doubtful that you will be able to do without this culture in the future. Its agricultural technology is simple and even a beginner in gardening can cope with cultivation. Celery has an unusual piquant taste and is widely used in cooking. Roots, petioles, and leaves are also used for food - crispy salads, aromatic spices are prepared from them, and added to soups

Medicine straight from the garden

Celery is a biennial plant. In the year of sowing, a root crop with a rosette of leaves is formed. The next year, the plant produces a flower stem. There are three types of celery: root, petiole, leaf.

Each has its own characteristics:

• petiole can be grown in cellars in autumn;

• leafy is famous for its fragrant greens;

• root in winter is used for forcing.

The vegetable is prized for its nutritional qualities, rich content of vitamins and essential oils. Thanks to this, celery is also revered as a medicinal plant. It is used to stimulate appetite and improve digestion, strengthen the nervous system and restore normal metabolism.

Soil requirements and desirable predecessors

It is recommended to cultivate celery in those beds where potatoes and cabbage were grown before. Before planting, the area where it is planned to plant herring is good to fill up to 8 kg of manure per 1 square meter, as well as about 30 g of nitrogen fertilizers, 20 potash fertilizers, 40 phosphorus fertilizers for the same area.

When choosing a place for planting, it should be borne in mind that the plant will not give a good harvest on acidic soils. The best results are obtained from non-acidic peatlands. Suitable for planting soil rich in humus, sandy loam, medium loamy and light.

Reproduction through seedlings

Celery has a long growing season and slow germinating seeds. Therefore, it is recommended to prepare seedlings in greenhouses and hotbeds as early as February. Seeds are sown in shallow containers or into the ground immediately after the snow melts according to the 4x4 cm scheme. In the phase of two true leaves, the seedlings will need to pick according to the 5x5 cm scheme.

Despite the fact that celery is a cold-resistant plant, it must be hardened before planting seedlings in open ground. To do this, a week before the expected disembarkation period, containers begin to be taken out into the open air for a short time, gradually increasing the time spent outdoors. In the early days, seedlings are protected from direct sunlight.

On the day of disembarkation, 3-4 hours before the procedure, the seedlings must be watered abundantly with water. On the garden bed, plants are placed taking into account the variety of celery:

• for the root in a row, make the distance between plants about 30 cm;

• for a leaf, leave a distance between seedlings of about 20 cm.

The optimal time for planting seedlings in open ground is the end of May.

When the seedless celery method is used, early maturing compaction plants, such as lettuce, are co-grown to save space and time.

Further care

After transplanting to a permanent place, celery will need three additional feeding:

• the first - two weeks after disembarkation of seedlings;

• the second - during the most active growth of green mass;

• the third - during the formation of the root crop.

For this purpose, superphosphate, ammonium nitrate or potassium salt are used. Organic matter is effective for this - bird droppings or mullein, diluted with water.

The first crop is usually harvested in July. Plants are selectively thinned out 2-3 times per season. Celery is completely removed from the beds by the end of October. Before laying for storage, it is necessary to shake the root crops from the ground, then they are folded in slides to dry. Before sending the celery to the cellar, the leaves are separated from the root crop.