Can you only harvest celery at a certain time?

[gardening_gal]

Like when the moon is full or something?

Seriously though, can you harvest small thin stalks of celery at any point when they are growing but small or will they taste different/bitter/unready etc at this stage and you need to wait until they are what most people would class as being full sized?

[roitelet]

I don't always need a whole head of celery so just take off a couple of the outer stalks as needed at any time.

[solway cropper]

Same here, I just take from each plant what stalks I need. If you do cut the whole head do it an inch or so above ground and it will send up new shoots which I use in soups.

[Deb P]

I also just pick off sticks from the outside of plants and leave the rest to grow on. This year I do have two of last years celery plants that survived the winter and are still going, I haven't had the heart to dig them up yet until this years plants are ready..

[Bill HH]

The smaller the better I would think.