Celery Info?

Does anyone have any info on celery? Esp: how many per square. My seed says to start indoors - but can you direct sow too? The pack says to thin to 2 inches apart...does that mean 12 per square? I'm so bad at that!

heres all the info on the back of the packet:

Start indoors 10 weeks before outdoor planting date. Broadcast evenly on well-watered soil and cover lightly. When 2 inches tall, thin to 2 inches apart.

Transplant outdoors when the plants are 4 inches tall. Place in well-cultivated soil and keep watered.

plant spacting is every 8 inches. so about 4/sf.

Sorry I must have missed putting some of it on the packet

chocolatepop check your math 8inches per plant is 9 plants per 2ftx 2ft area.
Crowding 4 celery in 1ft will give you poor results.

G'day boninie0128,

Grow celery 1 per square foot. Celery has a large root system and is a heavy feeder so feed it plenty of compost during it growing time.

Cheers, Peter.

chocolatepop -

You're fine...for some reason I just can't wrap my head around spacing - and I was really good at math. I think it has something to do with multiple numbers to choose from...ie "thin to" vs "plant spacing"

Also, the packet didn't have the plant spacing part...but no worries!

gridgardener wrote:chocolatepop check your math 8inches per plant is 9 plants per 2ftx 2ft area.
Crowding 4 celery in 1ft will give you poor results.

gridgardener, I'm actually a little confused on your math of 9 plants per 2x2 box. Have you grown celery before? what spacing have you found successful?

Check THIS site, which is where I am getting my info. If you plant one in each corner, they would be more than 8" apart. BUT as I said, I haven't planted it before.

Mel suggest 4/sf.

Celery
(a "high rise" crop)

You're adventuresome to want to grow celery. Celery is a difficult crop to grow and not many people try it. If you do try it, space the plants 4 per square foot. If you desire nice white stalks, try the system Mel devised for double deep leeks. You can read all about it by clicking the "High Rise" tab below or in Mel's Column on "High-Rise Gardening".

SUBJECT: Growing Celery
Q: I've been reading your book and web site and spent part of last weekend preparing some 4x4 squares for next summer. The only sunny yard area is on a slope, so I've been doing a bit of terracing.

I've also been planning layouts. I saw lots of salad vegetables in your book, but I didn't see any information on spacing for celery. From the information at a seed web site, I would guess six inch spacing.
Adam

Maybe I'll just give the seed to my aunt to put in her traditional row garden... I'm not much for things that don't have a large yield but take up space (ie 1-4 per square...depending on who you listen to...only yields 1-4 bunches of celery). Not sure that's worth it for my tiny garden!...esp when it's relatively inexpensive at the store (though home grown DOES taste better with most crops!).

If your still wanting to plant it, what about putting it in a container? Either way it goes GOOD LUCK!

Does anyone know when is a good time to start celery for a fall crop? My packet (Tendercrisp) says it needs as much mild weather as possible, and that is certainly not the case now... just not sure how long it needs to mature.