Celeriac

Celeriac does not survive a lowland winter in the ground in Central Europe. Harvest the roots in good time before the first hard frost, usually in October or November. Then store them with the soil still clinging in damp sand in a frost-free, dark cellar; in light frosts you can leave them briefly in the bed covered with leaves, straw or horticultural fleece, but in lasting frost dig them up at once. In spring you raise new plants from seed or buy young plants.

You propagate celeriac exclusively by sowing. As an annual vegetable it forms neither runners nor daughter plants, and division or cuttings do not work with it. Sowing is unproblematic in terms of true-to-type plants, since celeriac is not grafted onto rootstocks. Start raising the plants early: from mid-February to early March, sow in shallow trays of fine seed compost. Celery needs light to germinate, so press the seeds in only lightly and do not cover them with compost. At about 20 °C they germinate in two to three weeks. After that, keep the young plants evenly warm and do not leave them permanently cool: if celery is raised for a long time below roughly 12 to 15 °C, it later bolts in the bed (vernalisation) and the root stays small. As soon as the seedlings have their first pair of true leaves and can be handled well, prick them out into individual pots. After the Ice Saints in mid-May, plant them in the bed about 40 to 50 cm apart. Do not set them too deep: the growing point and the later root should sit shallow and high, otherwise the plant forms side roots instead of a fine root.