Celery (Stalk Celery)

Celery is not hardy and does not survive the Central European winter in the bed. Harvest all the stalks before the first night frost, usually September to October. If you want to produce seed, you can overwinter one plant in a container, bright and frost-free at around 10 °C; otherwise sow afresh in spring.

You propagate celery by sowing only. The plant forms no runners, no bulbils and no divisible root stock, and “regrowing in a glass of water” gives only short-lived foliage for the kitchen, not real young plants. Note: botanically celery is a biennial, but in the home garden you grow it as an annual crop and harvest in the first year.

Start sowing from the end of February to mid-March on a bright windowsill or in a greenhouse. Sow the seeds on the surface of moist seed compost. Celery is a light germinator and may only be covered with a very thin layer of sand (or not covered at all). Keep the soil evenly moist and warm at 18 to 20 °C; then the seeds come up in about 2 to 3 weeks.

As soon as the seedlings show the second pair of true leaves, prick them out into individual pots. Then keep them bright and moderately warm, not too cool. Here lies the most common mistake: a cold shock at the young plant stage (below about 15 °C for several days) acts like a winter and makes the plants bolt prematurely later instead of forming thick stalks. So neither molly-coddle them nor keep them too cold.

Harden the young plants off before planting out and set them in the bed only after the Ice Saints, from mid-May, when cold nights no longer threaten. If cool nights still threaten, cover the little plants to avoid bolting. A spacing of about 30 to 40 cm in the row and 40 to 50 cm between rows provides air and helps prevent fungal diseases. Celery has a long growing period; an early start that is not kept too cool pays off.

Note on trueness to type: seed from your own plants only gives offspring that come true if it is not an F1 hybrid. With hybrid varieties you buy the seed new every year.