Due to its beneficial qualities and positive effect on the human body, celery has long earned respect and popularity among fans of a healthy lifestyle and not only. You can eat celery root, petioles and greens. There are many recipes using root vegetables: it is added to salads, baked, boiled, it is possible to make fresh. This vegetable gives each dish a special taste, aroma, adding a certain piquancy.

Celery is especially useful due to its composition. It contains:

  • unique amino acids;
  • nicotinic acid;
  • carotene;
  • trace elements: calcium, boron, iron, zinc manium, manganese;
  • vitamins of group A, B, C, E, K.

Celery has a positive effect on diabetes, stomach problems, migraines, joint pains, water imbalance, and nervous system disorders. In addition, the vegetable perfectly raises the tone of the whole organism, improves the quality of mental and physical functionality.

Despite all the advantages of celery, you can rarely find it in our dachas. This trend of agricultural technology is explained by the complex and scrupulous growing process, ignorance of how to grow celery correctly. After all, it is easier to buy a ready-made vegetable than to spend your energy and patience on caring for this crop.

Root celery

Remember! The benefits of commercial celery are incomparable to those of home-grown root vegetables.

Celery, although it came to us from the warm countries of the Mediterranean, grows well throughout the territory of our country - even in Siberia and the Urals, not to mention the Moscow region and the southern regions. And the growing process itself is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. One has only to understand some of the intricacies and peculiarities of root crop farming.

Features of agricultural technology

One of the main features that should be considered before planting this vegetable is the correct choice of a future planting site.

Celery is a light-loving plant. Grows well in fertile, light soils with a loose structure. Sandy loam or loamy soil with low (up to 7pH) or neutral acidity is suitable for planting celery.

The best option for growing celery root is an open, sunny place with the possibility of regular moisture.

Remember! For all its love for watering, the root crop does not tolerate excess moisture. In the presence of heavy soils that tend to get wet, you need to take care of drainage.

Reproduction of culture

It is worthwhile to study the question well: how to grow and care for celery in order to obtain a quality product.

In nature, there are several types of celery: leaf, petiole and root. They differ a little in their purpose and appearance, but the principles of care are almost the same.

The first thing to know about the root celery growing process is that the plant propagates using seeds. This vegetable is a biennial plant. In the first year, greens, stems, root grow. In the second year, an inflorescence is formed, in which the seeds ripen. It is these grains, well-ripe, carefully collected, that can become the basis of the future harvest.

You can purchase seeds from the store. In this case, you need to carefully study the information about the quality, shelf life and ripening period of the variety. It is better to choose early-maturing varieties with large roots.

Early maturing varieties

Sowing celery seeds

Root celery is grown by the seedling method. This is due to the long ripeness. The growing season can be up to 200 days. In addition, celery seeds are sensitive to the environment and may not germinate under adverse conditions.

The process of growing and caring for root celery begins with sowing the seeds. Since the seeds are saturated with essential oils, their germination period can take up to a month. To speed up this process, before sowing, they are pre-germinated: they are kept for 24 hours in clean water or in a moistened napkin. Additionally, the seeds can be treated with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. When performing these actions, seedlings can be expected in a week.

Sowing celery root should be in the period from the first decade of February to the second decade of March (70-80 days before planting in open ground). The next step in sowing seeds is soil preparation. You can buy a ready-made peat mixture or prepare it yourself. A mixture of good garden soil with peat, humus, wood ash and sand is great for celery. As a top dressing, you can add a spoonful of urea to the soil.

Top dressing celery

A ball of sand with small stones is poured onto the bottom of the container as drainage. The rest of the soil is added, well moistened.

As soon as the seed begins to hatch, shallow grooves are made on the surface of the soil with an interval of 4-5 cm. The seeds are sown, covered with a light ball of sand. Some gardeners recommend sowing grains on a thin ball of snow - then you can place the seeds evenly, and the snow, melting, feeds them and draws them to the desired depth. The stage of sowing celery is completed by covering the container with a film to create a greenhouse effect.

The optimum condition for seed germination is a temperature of 20-22 degrees.

When the first shoots appear, the film should be removed and the containers should be moved to a sunny place, and the air temperature must be reduced to 15-17 degrees. It is necessary to regularly moisten the soil by spraying.

In the period when 2-3 leaves appear, the seedlings dive - they are transplanted into separate containers. Before planting celery, the root is pinched a third of its length. The seedlings themselves are planted in the soil up to half of the hypocotal knee. Upon completion of the dive, the plant should avoid direct sunlight for several days.

Celery planting and care

A week after the celery has been planted in separate pots, it's time for feeding. As the first fertilizer, you can use a solution of Nitrofoski (1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water). If necessary, the procedure can be repeated up to three times with an interval of at least 10 days. So as not to burn the sprouts, you must rinse them with plain water (you can use a sieve).

7-10 days before the time when you plan to plant celery in open ground, the seedlings should be hardened. To do this, the sprouts are placed in fresh air, each day increasing the period of stay on the street from several hours to a whole day.

Celery planting and care in the open field

With the onset of spring and stable heat, it's time to figure out how you can grow celery in the open field.

In order for celery sprouts to be planted in a garden bed, they must reach 15 cm in height and form up to 5 leaves. Planting seedlings should start no earlier than the second decade of May, when the possibility of frost is minimal.

Important to remember! Celery seedlings are very sensitive to low temperatures. As a result of its impact, instead of forming a stump, an arrow-shaped stem is released, and the future harvest becomes threatened.

Before planting celery in the garden, you must first prepare it, preferably in the fall. For this, a sunny place is chosen, dug up and fertilized with humus, ash, chicken droppings. You can also add potash, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers.

Seedlings should be planted in well-moisturized soil in the evening or on a cool day.If there is a possibility of night frost, you can cover the plants with jars or plastic bottles. It is better to plant celery according to the 30 * 40 scheme. Do not plant seedlings too deeply - this can provoke intensive growth of lateral leaves.

Council. Celery will grow best after tomatoes, cabbage, and legumes. You should not plant a root crop after parsley, carrots, dill. The neighborhood of potatoes, onions, garlic has a good effect on the growth of celery.

Culture care

The process of caring for celery is not as painstaking as growing seedlings, but it also has nuances:

  • Watering. Celery is a moisture-loving plant that requires regular moisture. But you should know when to stop in everything - you can't soak it either;
  • Soil care - regular loosening, mulching, getting rid of weeds;
  • Top dressing. Fertilize celery 3-4 times per season with a solution of chicken droppings, manure. You can use complex fertilizers. In July, add superphosphate (25-30 g per square meter) and boric acid solution.

Feature. Celery does not need to be piled up. Even, on the contrary, at the end of summer, you should rake off the soil from the root crop, tear off the side leaves and cut off excess roots to form a large fruit of a beautiful presentation.

Diseases and pests

Some diseases can damage the future harvest. In the fight against them, special means should be used, following the instructions:

  • Septoriasis (Fundazol, Topsil-M);
  • Rust (Fitosporin-M);
  • Cercosporiasis (Fundazol).

Pests that can harm celery:

  • Carrot fly (sprinkled with dry mustard, tobacco dust);
  • Celery fly (you need to weed the garden in time);
  • Bean aphid (infusion of dandelion stalks or citrus peels is used).

Harvesting

Leaf celery - growing

You need to harvest in late autumn - until the end of October. The root crop can withstand frosts down to -3 degrees. You should pull the celery out of the ground, carefully clean it of excess soil, cut off the leaves, leaving 2 cm of tops.

Well-dried celery is stored in a cool, dry and dark place (you can in the cellar). It does not lose its commercial qualities almost until summer.

Celery is a source of nutrients that the body needs. And although the process of growing a root crop is quite painstaking, requires patience and hard work, certain knowledge, the result is worth it. Having received a good harvest, you can provide yourself and your family with the necessary vitamins and minerals for the entire winter-spring period.

Celery stalk - grown from seeds