Celery is an incredibly healthy crop. It is used to prepare salads, first courses and as a flavor enhancer for stewing meat or vegetables. Celery is very rich in vitamins, and it is also used to make the famous onion soup, which provides guaranteed weight loss. However, this product is quite expensive on the market - so is it time to learn how to grow celery yourself?
The best way to grow celery is to sprout seeds to further plant seedlings in the ground. The most suitable time to start germinating seeds is the end of March or the beginning of April. Before planting seedlings should pass a little more than a month. In some sources, telling about how to grow celery, the end of March is also called the start date for seed germination. So, the first question: "When to plant celery?" receives the following answer: "March, one and a half months before the planting of seedlings in the ground." Since in different regions spring comes at different times, you can independently determine the beginning of seed germination.
Celery seeds are planted in a box with humus, the temperature should initially be about 20 degrees, only three weeks after the appearance of the first sprouts, it is reduced to 15 degrees. Accordingly, the question "When to plant celery?" it is closely connected with the temperature of the spring months in a particular region. Planting seedlings is necessary when the average daily temperature exceeds 15 degrees.
You need to know how to grow celery with juicy fleshy leaves. To do this, from the first leaves you need to pinch - this will allow the remaining young greenery to grow stronger. It is important to ensure that the soil prepared for celery is rich in phosphorus and potassium. Celery loves light and moisture, but, on the other hand, does not treat the scorching sun and waterlogging very well - it needs a measure in everything. In manuals on how to grow celery, it is described that the best predecessors for this vegetable are zucchini, beets or cabbage. Celery leaves are harvested in July. The crop allows you to cut the crop two or three times.
But this does not end all the charms of growing this useful plant. So, there are rules on how to grow celery in greenhouse conditions. Already in October, you can plant plants and enjoy the greenery until the month of March. The soil should be sprinkled with sand. In greenhouses, you can also get two to three crops. Recall that celery in a cool room can be stored for up to three days. It is very good to use another useful part of the plant - the root. At the last harvest of the "tops", the plants are completely removed from the soil and the root is separated from the leaves. Recall that celery root is also very useful and contains many vitamins and minerals. There is an option to leave celery in the second year - in this case, you can get the stems of the plant, which are also successfully used in cooking and traditional medicine.
Let us dwell on the question of how to grow petiole celery. By and large, we are used to buying the petioles of this plant - but often they have a bitter taste, so not all of them eat them. But the undoubted benefit of celery taught gardeners to give a healthy culture a more attractive taste. For this purpose, a technique for whitening petioles has been developed - 2-3 months before the harvest, plants are spudded. This procedure allows you to get rid of bitterness, and then the plants are stored for much longer.
Well, and the last. If there is no desire to bother with seeds, you can do much easier by leaving root crops until next spring. Then they are planted like potatoes, and again enjoy tasty and healthy greens.