Garden Tip - Never buy Celery Again

Store bought NON-organic spuds are grown in ground fertilized by artificial fertilizers, sprayed with insecticides, treated with an herbicide to kill the tops at harvest, and then again sprayed with an anti-sprouting chemical. They are also subject to rot if the weather is inordinately wet, as it was in New England last year. Is there a build up of chemical residues in the ground from year to year? I don't know. But in any event, the resulting commercial potato is bland, flavorless and eaten solely for its starch content. Our organically grown SFG potatoes, on the other hand taste phenomenally well, which is why I grow them even though they take up a fair amount of space.

By the same token, I always thought that bitter celery was the result of chemical treatments. Same with Brussels Sprouts - the bitterness just isn't there with organic sprouts. I'm hoping for the same results with my celery.

Tom

Put green onions bottoms in a peat pot filled with compost and stuck it in the windowsill yesterday morning.

Well, I took the chance on the celery idea and yes, it worked. Put it in water overnight and planted it the next day - Sunday. It has the first center leaves already. MM is powerful stuff. If I can now get this to work in the house this winter - more goodies.

Love the idea of the green onions and lettuce. Think I'll try that too.

I have tried this 5 times now with a variety of celery bases.
I have not had much luck with getting them past the first stage.

GWN wrote:I have tried this 5 times now with a variety of celery bases.
I have not had much luck with getting them past the first stage.

Could it be a growing season issue? I don't know - just wondering.

Have you tried it indoors?

GWN wrote:I have tried this 5 times now with a variety of celery bases.
I have not had much luck with getting them past the first stage.

I got one to start, got about 2" and died.

Kay

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I tried it in MM but nothing ever came up.

Every one I put out in the garden has taken off. The trick, I think, is to leave an inch or two of the old stalks there. However, my celery is actually bolting now! I didn't find out until later that celery takes a long time to mature and that it doesn't like hot weather. Oops!

This sounds like a wonderful idea Littlesapphire! I have one bunch of celery that is now just calling out my name! I am concerned about growing right now because of the heat but I am going to try to plant it where it will get some shade from a fence in the morning and I will try to keep the soil moist. Because of the heat should we try to keep it a little shaded throughout the day until the days start getting cooler. Our day temps are mid to high 90s right now.

I just set one 'bottom' in a bowl of water yesterday. I hope it takes off and grows. I read that it takes 4 months to a mature plant which puts us into December which really isn't feasible so I think I will eventually put it into a pot outside and then have to bring it inside. Not sure any of my windows get enough sun but no harm in trying it since I needed celery anyway. If I can regenerate some organic celery I am ahead of the game for one plant anyway!

walshevak wrote:

GWN wrote:I have tried this 5 times now with a variety of celery bases.
I have not had much luck with getting them past the first stage.

I got one to start, got about 2" and died.

Kay

Well, mine is dying too. I think it's the wrong time of the year for this. I will try one again but plant it in a pot and keep it out of the hot sun and bring it in the house when the weather gets too cold. I have lots of sun in my sunroom so I hope that in the winter it will continue to grow. 4 months? That's a long time in this part of the world.

Wow, this is way cool!

My Chinese co-worker has been telling for years that I could plant anything from the grocery store that has roots, to look for the freshest and longest roots when buying.

I've did it with a rotten yellow onion once and it worked. I ended up with 2 smaller beautiful fresh onions. I tried cutting my pak choi back to the stubs but they never grew up again. Probably too hot by them. Then I forgot about doing this. Will try it with organic celery today, and plant it in the shade behind the pole beans maybe.

CC

I tried this by cutting the bottom and planting it directly into the MM. It took a couple weeks but I am finally seeing some leaves. It's in an area that doesn't get much sun.

I finally remembered to go out and take a picture of my celery I started from a store bought celery base. As you can see, the poor thing just bolted right up.



Celery is both a long season plant (needing between 3 and 4 months to mature), but also a cold season plant. So next year, I'm going to start these guys in pots about the same time you're supposed to start celery seeds. That way hopefully the celery won't bolt!

However, I will say, the bolted celery has a VERY strong celery flavor. I plan on freezing the leaves and using them in soup!

I like your comment about freezing the leaves, etc. Yes, when we are given lemons we need to make lemonade. Being thankful for what we do have is way better than the grumbling that we usually do when things don't go our way. Maybe this winter will be a very cold one and we will need lots of soup to keep us warm. Just a thought.

The first celery stump was put in quality MM and has now had a blanching band added .. because it turned dark green and very strong.


A week after the band was added I noticed the thing has partially flowered so after hacking it about with scissors , I fitted a bigger new band , there are no longer any flowering stalks.
We'll be back in 15 days time .. it will be interesting to see what has happened.

plantoid wrote:The first celery stump was put in quality MM and has now had a blanching band added .. because it turned dark green and very strong.


A week after the band was added I noticed the thing has partially flowered so after hacking it about with scissors , I fitted a bigger new band , there are no longer any flowering stalks.
We'll be back in 15 days time .. it will be interesting to see what has happened.

So what happened???

CC

Daah de dan dan dahhhhh . We ate it !

We've also eaten all the other stumplings and several more as well .
One thing that does make for a game changer is the watering ... celery needs consistant levels of moisture and nourishment
Too little water ,it is dry hard and bitter . Not enough of the right nutrients at the right time and the cell structure is like eating a loofa sponge .... rather dry and almost tasteless .

So when you do a square of one stumpling per sq ft, do make sure that the compost is well distrubuted /mixed in the square I've recently been adding two trowels of home made compost to th planting square because celery is a greed feeder and aded two in the adjacent squares if possible.

Do pay particular attention to consistantly keeping it moist at the correct level instead of letting it get stressed when dry .
I got a cheapie push in moisture probe off ebay to give me an indiaction of how damp things were 6 inches below the top of them.

we grew celery from seed last year......come harvest time (after blanching) we cut it down to the stump and left it in the ground ....it re-grew and is doing very nice this spring.....i will look to see if i can find some pic's we took last year.....as i dont remember if the two celery plants that are still in the bed or the few i moved into the green house are the ones we cut and ate off of last year.... ....will let you know how they taste after harvesting....

happy gardening
rose

My wife threw a celery butt in the compost pail and when I went to empty the pail found it, rinsed it off and put it into an empty square where it is happily growing new stalks. Next time you bring celery home from the grocery plant the butts and see what happens.

thought i would share some pics

April 2012 4 celery seedlings go out to the garden



we had two more seedlings and put them in the square below the first celery



we blanched the celery with cardboard for a couple of weeks and then harvested the bottom two leaving the bottom part in the soil....you can see where we cut and where it started to grow again



we left the two bottom celery that was cut....to over winter out in the bed and this is what they look like now



happy gardening
rose

LOL Plantoid! Stumplings! That's exactly what they are! I have a couple that overwintered that are out in the garden and a couple more I just put in dirt to let them root up a bit. I saw on Facebook someone posted that they'd done this with romaine lettuce, too - so I've got some romaine stumplings sitting in water in a dish right now that I'll pot up and see if I can make some magic happen! Fun! The kids love this stuff!

This years celery experiment for me is ..
To compare just cutting the top off and leaving the rooted stump in place to regrow and planting stumplings .


My theory is this..
The rooted left in the original place bit will have developed different hormones , possibly the ready to make seed ones , so perhaps will taste different and re grow at different rates or it might just restart as a stumpling.

The stumpling produces emergency roots to try and survive closely followed by stalk and leaves to provide photosynthisis ( sp ? )

The stumpling should produce vigorous new growth and lots ofroots like a new plant so making more use of the new nutrients & moisture around it in the square foot space .

My 7 celery "stumplings" , that have been growing in the window all winter, are getting planted out in the SFG today. Or should they be hardened off first? I also have 2 that I recently started at work in the window behind my desk so my coworkers can watch this miracle.

My latest experiment: I just put an organic cabbage stumpling in water this morning and will put it out probably tomorrow. Has anyone tried it with cabbage yet?

CC