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.

[Marb67]

Perhaps the rain in the next few days will bring them on. Otherwise another depressing failure

[ameno]

Perhaps the rain in the next few days will bring them on. Otherwise another depressing failure

Far too late, I'm afraid.

[Marb67]

You don't know how long I nurtured the plants before they were planted out. Soul destroying.

[Nicos]

The stems are still edible marb.
Are they a self blanching variety? Either way you can put a couple of stems ( without their leaves ) in a casserole- so not all is lost.
Maybe pull off a few ‘strings’ if the seem a bit tough?
I certainly wouldn't be giving up on them just yet.As ameno says, they won’t grow any more but you can harvest - certainly for cooking.
White celery are hard to find here - mostly the tough green ones .
Just try and keep them frost free.

[Marb67]

Ok, I'll cover them and use leaves in salad. . Thanks. I did the hack of growing the base of supermarket celery in water to get new shoots but they never grew into a full celery.

[Nicos]

Nah^^^^ they wouldn’t grow so much, but it’s a few more edible bits.
If your stems are tough, chop them and pop them in a casserole instead.