When thinking about how to grow celery and how much work it might be you’ll begin to wonder if it’s really worth it. Celery is not always the most exciting thing you can put in your garden. Sure it’s great for ants on a log, and is one of three ingredients necessary for a good mirepoix, but on its own it’s a kind of bland calorie neutral food. Even still, celery is well worth growing in your garden because what it lacks in strength on its own, it makes up for with its variety of supporting roles in nearly every types of dish. This chef staple aromatic can be a star in the kitchen even without being the main ingredient in any dish. With that in mind let’s break down the secrets to growing celery in your garden at home.
About Celery
Celery is considered a bit more of a difficult plant to grow at home for early gardeners. While it is not actually too difficult, it has a long growing cycle and the trenching variety of celery requires a bit more work and knowledge to grow properly. On top of this celery seeds are minuscule and getting them to start properly can sometimes be a challenge.
Celery is actually a biennial marshland plant. Biennial plants are those that take two years to reach maturity and produce seeds. For the garden this doesn’t make much of difference as we eat the stalks of the plant which come up in the first year, but if you’re saving any for seed, you have to wait until the following year to get flowers.
Being a marshland plant, celery is a bit of an odd one when it comes to growing it in the garden, so we’ll look at all of its growing requirements closely.
The Basic Conditions for Planting Celery
Celery, being a marshland plant, likes a very high nutrient rich environment that stays moist. Despite this it also like direct sunlight which is a bit of pain because you’ll need to watch celery a bit more closely than some of the simpler plants you can grow in your garden.
Celery has a longer growing time than most other plants (~140 days) so you likely will also want to start these indoors.
Soil Conditions for Planting Celery
Celery likes highly composted water retentive soil. With celery you’ll want to ensure that your soil have been mixed with a lot of compost to produce a high organic matter blend that will hold onto moisture well while also still draining so there isn’t standing water.
If you are adding fertilizer to your soil you’ll want to use a 5-10-10 NPK fertilizer. Any high organic component soil should have more than enough nitrogen, so choosing a fertilizer that doesn’t overdo it will produce the best results for your plants.
Emulating the marshy soil that celery loves requires a slightly more acidic pH. Celery grows best in a soil pH of 5.8 to 6.8. This is a good range and rather easy to achieve, but we always recommend you check your soil pH before you plant to avoid heartache later on when your plants fail to grow.
Growing Temperatures and Climates for Celery
Celery is a cool weather plant, but this is the trickiest part about it. Ideally it grows in temperatures above 50F (10C), but celery does not tolerate heat well, so you want to get it in the ground as soon as temperatures will be above 50F (10C) during the day and stay above 40F (4C) at night. If you are in a region that gets hot fast you’ll need to plant your celery as early as possible.
While celery is a biennial plant and takes two years to get to its flowering stage, planting it too early can still cause it to bolt and ruin the harvest. This is why you want to ensure that the plant is staying above 40F (4C) at night after you transplant it. If necessary to ensure you have enough time to grow you celery, you can put them under small enclosures at night to keep their temperature up and still have enough time to grow them before it gets too hot for them to thrive.
If you live in a particularly arid climate you’ll need to be careful that your celery don’t dry out. They want to be moist all the time (not wet) and if your soil ever goes dry your celery will suffer.
Planting Celery
Celery should be started indoors to ensure it has the best conditions for growth. Celery seeds are very small, even compared to other seeds, so working with them can be difficult. Be sure to have adequate lighting while planting so you don’t loose your seeds.
Starting Your Celery From Seed Indoors
Before you plant celery seeds be sure to soak them in warm (not hot) water overnight. This process “wakes up” the seeds and will accelerate the germination process.
Fill your seed starter tray with with a high quality seed starting mix, don’t use potting soil. Plant the seeds by lightly pressing them into place in each cell, or in a non-cell tray about an inch apart. Do not cover the seeds in dirt as celery seeds don’t have the energy necessary to push up through soil. Instead just lightly press them into the soil to affix them in place.
Mist your soil so that it is moist and then lid or tent the seed tray to keep the soil moist. Mist them often so that the soil stays moist, but it should never get visibly wet. I can take up to three weeks for celery seeds to germinate so be patient with them. In ideal conditions they may germinate in as little as a week.
Once the seeds start you setup a grow light for your starters. They should be given 16 hours of light a day being sure to turn off the lights at night. During this time you’ll want to keep your seeds at 60F to 70F (21C to 24C). Ideally they should be slightly warmer during the day while under lights, but lights tend to do that anyway, so as long as they are keeping warm they should grow fine.
From here you transplant the starters to flats or pot once they are at least 2 inches tall and begin the hardening and acclimatizing process. For Celery they can easily be hardened for outdoor planting by putting them outside for a couple hours a day and by cutting back on their watering slightly. You don’t need to work to hard to shock your plants when hardening them for the outdoors as any change is more than enough to build up some heartiness in the plants.
Transplanting Your Celery Starters Outdoors
When the temperature outside is consistently above 50F (10C) during the day and 40F (4C) during the night you can transplant your celery starters to their final growing locations. Celery has a very shallow root system so when you plant them outdoors you’re going to want to ensure you’re soil is rich with organic matter and ready for the celery.
Plant the celery starters 8 to 10 inches apart and ensure they are thoroughly watered. Celery are a full sun plants, so make sure you are not planting them in the shade.
If you are planting trenching celery, you’re going to want to plant the celery in trenches. As the celery grows you will have to mound the soil against the stalks to get them to blanch, which a trench helps with as the soil can simply be pushed into the trench as the celery grows. The alternative to this process is to choose a variety of self blanching celery which can make the process much easier.
Growing and Caring for Your Celery
Celery is a needy plant. Because of this you’re going to need to pay attention to both the plant and the soil for best results.
Watering Celery
Celery need to stay moist. Unlike most other plants that you will grow celery should never dry out. Celery doesn’t grow more developed root systems in drought, it just dies. Because of this quirk growing celery requires more attention and the soil’s moisture levels should be checked daily.
Celery Soil Maintenance
As your celery becomes established be sure to add compost to the soil around and between your plants periodically. This will help keep the soil moist and give your celery valuable nutrients. To ensure the best crop after the second or third month you can fertilize the soil again with 5-10-10 fertilizer.
If you are using trenching celery varieties once the plants are double their starting height you can push the soil up against the base of the plant leveling off the trench. Every few days add more soil to this mound to keep the stalks covered. Soil should never cover more than a third of the plant at any given time. The added compost can make up the majority of this cover.
This will cause your celery to blanch at the stalk and prevent it from getting too bitter. Celery that is not properly cared for will have bright green stalks as the sun reaches the bottom of the plant and this process makes the celery bitter. While the celery will not be ruined and can still be eaten, its uses are diminished a bit and more care must be taken when used in cooking. On the other hand, the greener the celery the more vitamins and nutrients it will have, despite its bitter taste. We like to grow celery for cooking and flavor, so blanching for us is a must.
Again, the whole trenching process can be skipped if use a self-blanching variety of celery.
Weeding Celery
Celery is susceptible to weeds because of its shallow roots. Be sure to weed your celery as frequently as possible, daily if you can. Be careful when pulling any weeds that have become well established as they can cause damage to your celery, but if you weed regularly you should be able to avoid this.
Supporting Celery
While not necessary for it’s growth, some gardeners like to get nice straight bunches of celery. This can aid in blanching and certainly makes preparation and storing easier. To achieve this as the plant grows beyond double its initial height the stalks can be lashed together with a plant safe tie. The ties will need to be adjusted every couple of days to avoid damaging the plant, but with care you can produce nice straight bunches of celery stalks.
If you are unable to check and adjust these frequently it is best to skip this step.
How Long Does it Take Celery To Grow?
Celery grows from seed to havestable stalk in 130 to 140 days on average. This can vary based on the variety you grow and the conditions in which you start your seeds. Typically after planting starters you can get celery grown to maturity in three to four months time, ready to harvest in summer.
How to Harvest Celery
Celery can be harvested whole or by individual stalk. Typically we recommend harvesting a whole plant at a time as it is easier to do and easier on the plant. If you harvest only what you need from the plant by cutting individual stems the plants will keep longer, but the wounds can attract garden pests in certain areas.
How to Know Celery Is Ready to Harvest
Celery is ready to harvest once the stalks are 8 inches tall. Since we eat the stalk of the plant young celery and older celery picked fresh from the garden are no different. If you pick as early as possible you’ll get a little less celery, but you can certainly use it as you need it once it is ready.
Once fully grown celery will maintain its best characteristics for up to a month in the ground. after that point you should harvest the remaining stalks to ensure you don’t loose any to frost or heat depending on your region.
How to Store Celery
Celery stores quite well in the fridge. Store plant whole in a crisper drawer or plastic bag in the fridge and they will keep for several weeks. If you have more celery than you can use, you can freeze it after preparation. Before freezing celery cut the stems into 1 inch segments and store in a freezer safe container. Once frozen celery will be soft when thawed, but can still be used in mirepoix or as an ingredient for soups, stocks, and sauces.
The Rewards of Growing Celery
Celery is a bit tricky to grow at home, both with its weird soil and high watering frequency requirements. Despite it taking a bit more farming know how and a lot of compost to get it right, celery is a key ingredient in French cooking and a star aromatic in the kitchen. Any chef worth their salt would want fresh celery close at hand, so if you’re a homesteader that wants to prepare tasty food year round a modest crop of celery is for you!