Celeriac seedlings

[sally fran]

I'm growing celeriac from seed for the first time this year. Loads have germinated and I now have a tray full of little seedlings that have a rather spindly stem of about 5cms topped by the seed leaves and one tiny true leaf.

I want to pot them on into individual pots now, but I'm not sure where the crown will form. In many pictures of small seedlings that I've looked at, the seed leaves seem to be at soil level. If I pot them on with the spindly stem buried and the seed leaves at soil level, will the crown form there or must I make sure that the soil level in the new pots is the same as it is now?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Jeanied]

The celeriac you eat is a swollen root. So the deeper you pop your seedlings in the hole the better. And they need to be growing in a good light and cooler conditions once they germinate.

[sally fran]

Thank you Jeanied. How cool do they need to be? They're on a south-east facing window ledge in a cool unheated spare bedroom at the moment. Is it too soon to put them outside in my little plastic-covered grow house?

[hollychap]

mine are in the cold greenhouse and are germinating ok and it should be warmer where you are i would put them in the grow house

[Florence Fennel]

Hi Sally, welcome to the Vine. You're doing the right thing if you follow Jeanied's advice and do as HC says and pop them under cover but outside.

[sally fran]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I grew some successfully from garden centre plugs last year (I'll be roasting the last one for lunch tomorrow) so once they're big enough to plant out I'll know what I'm doing!