Diseased Celery?

[Marb67]

I thought at least I can't go wrong trying Celery for the first time but the plants are not only still small but also starting to get some kind of blight.

Shall I cut them right down to thicken the stems?

[ameno]

Why would cutting them down thicken the stems?

Also, I'm afraid you were quite naive to think you can't go wrong with celery. It is quite difficult to grow well. Celery is naturally a marsh plant, and thus needs constant moist (although not waterlogged) soil. If the soil is allowed to dry too much, or if you grow them too close together or too close to other plants, they will never swell much.

[Nicos]

A lot of french organic celery seems to have straggly stems like that ( green to boot!)
Personally , I’d cut off those stems near the base and use them, having discarded the leaves.
Then put a cloche over the plant - or better still !…dig up and take indoors like that) to encourage the central stems to regrow.
A bit like this….
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/r...y-from-scraps/

Better than discarding everything.

[Marb67]

I've never heard of them needing boggy ground. Just earthed up and fed with manure as the great Harry Dodson demonstrated. They were pretty much the same spacing as mine. Sorry but they should have grown more than this.

[Nicos]

Here marb…take a look at this…
https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/celery/grow-your-own

[Vince G]

A lot of french organic celery seems to have straggly stems like that ( green to boot!)
Personally , I’d cut off those stems near the base and use them, having discarded the leaves.
Then put a cloche over the plant - or better still !…dig up and take indoors like that) to encourage the central stems to regrow.
A bit like this….
https://www.allrecipes.com/article/r...y-from-scraps/

Better than discarding everything.

Might be a bit late for the re-grow option I reckon. Couple of bad frosts and mine goes limp (the celery that is, LOL). So might not get big enough to regrow anything worthwhile.