Celery is a hard vegetable to grow, lots of time and effort needs to be spent growing it, making this a difficult vegetable to grow, the trench varieties are particularly hard to grow.

Self blanching varieties have made growing celery so much easier and that is why I am going to focus on them in this article.

Soil Preparation

Celery is a thirsty crop, the plants need a lot of water throughout the season therefore good soil is required to grow this vegetable. Dig the growing bed in autumn or spring incorporating a generous amount of well rotted manure or compost while digging the bed thoroughly.

Sowing and Planting

Celery seeds are best sown under glass, sowing in a greenhouse, cold frame or on a windowsill is fine. Sow the seeds in early April in three inch round pots. Once the plants have 4-5 leaves it will be time to transplant these seedlings outdoors.

The celery plants should be planted in blocks and not in rows, this will help each plant shade one another from the summer sun. Plants should be planted nine inches apart.

Looking After the Plants

When growing self blanching varieties you should place straw between plants to shade the plants a little more. Celery is a crop that needs lots of water throughout the growing season, water the plants generously when dry and feed with a general fertilizer once a month.

Harvesting

You can lift self-blanching celery plants once they are large enough to use, you can continue harvesting these plants until the first frost. If possible you should try and harvest the plants to the outside of the block of plants first, this will allow as little light between the plants as possible.