Self Blanching Celery

[P1nky]

I have just planted out my self blanching celery. My plot neighbour had some lengths of Pipe and asked if I wated them to shade the plants.

Will I damage the plants by using these pipes or will it make the celery better.

Now I know he's got them I may grow trench celery next year as it's supposed to be superior!

Pinky

[VirginVegGrower]

I'd snap his hands off and at the end of the season, give him a couple of sticks as thanks. Wrapping with collars will mean no stringy celery. Brilliant! Water well

[Grandy]

My Celery is now approx 8cm, when are these ready to put into their final positions? I have attached an image for you to gage.

Thanks

[rustylady]

Not yet Grandy, wait till the roots fill the pot.

[Grandy]

Not yet Grandy, wait till the roots fill the pot.

Thank you.

First year doing Celery.... Going ok ish.

[LincolnshireFloyd]

In my experience celery is one of the most difficult vegetables to get a decent crop from. They can get quite tough and develop a slightly bitter taste if you don't keep them well watered, in fact they will like it if they are almost sitting in water. And therein lies the next problem because the water will attract slugs and snails. The slugs get right into the centre of the plant and seem to be quite happy living there permanently which makes the end product unsightly and really only suitable for celery soup and not for eating raw in salads but still worth the effort. This problem is greatest towards the end of the season when the plants are really mature and have been sitting for a while waiting for you to crop them. If you keep them this long then try to protect them from frost in order to lengthen your cropping time. I grow a lot of celery and always lose the last lot to frosts eventually. If you are only growing a few plants then you might not have to bother with all this as you will have eaten them by then.

The white stalks are just a fashion and green celery is just as tasty and crisp. I buy the self blanching type too and don't bother to earth them up or put pipes round them which is unnecessary work and again just gives the slugs extra places to hide. In fact the slugs will think you want them there giving them a nice damp pipe to live in away from the sunshine and other predators so I guess that is why your neighbour has offered them to you as a way of getting rid. He's got that t shirt.

Even without the pipes you will get slug problems because of the water if you are looking after them well. This year I'm going to try 'Sluggo' round the beds to reduce the slug problem but even with the slugs there is usually a decent number of stalks per plant that can be used. It's managing the problem rather than expecting a complete eradication that's the key in my view.

And home grown celery is a completely different vegetable than the ones you buy in the supermarkets which are generally tasteless in comparison. Some supermarket celery tastes of the paraffin they use as an insecticide, ughh, horrible. So they are REALLY worth the effort. If I had to grow just one vegetable and buy everything else then celery would be it.

I'm in heaven when the celery is ready. A few stalks and a bag of crisps and it's even better that the first asparagus spears which we had today.

But as a previous poster has said water well, and then water again, and then again. If you go on holiday arrange for them to be watered. You can't drown them.

[out in the cold]

Self blanching celery.

Why am I thinking of that scene in Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy "lets meet the meat!"...?