celeriac

GWN 1/26/2013, 12:20 am

I wonder if anyone else grows this WONDERFUL vegetable. I have only just discovered it, and have just had the most incredible dinner of potato celeriac gratin. It is felt to be related to celery, but is grown for the root which is a very ugly looking specimen. However it has many great properties. It is a root vegetable and keeps in a cold room for up to 4 months. It is a lot like a potato, but does not have as much starch, so it would be a good substitute for potatoes.
It is apparently MUCH easier to grow than celery. I have just ordered OP seeds. I wonder if anyone else grows this wonderful plant.

janet

FamilyGardening 1/26/2013, 1:50 am

here is a great video Lav Debs made on her Potato, leek and celeriac soup Very Happy

we made some and loved it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAFNelmG-mE

happy gardening
rose

GWN 1/26/2013, 10:57 am

What a great video. It was fun to watch.
For the gratin I just layered sliced potatoes, then sliced celeriac, sliced mushrooms, feta cheese then repeated those layers (except the feta), pour mixture of half a cup of stock and half a cup of red wine, then cover, bake for an hour, then put layer of breadcrumbs, olive oil and parmesan cheese, and then bake uncovered for 20 mins.

It was soooo good, and I always find that potato dishes freeze well to, so several other meals.

Looking forward to the seeds arriving, since it sounds like they take quite awhile to germinate. I wonder how many cereriac per square foot thinking

Thanks Rose....oh and thanks Lavenderdebs

FamilyGardening 1/26/2013, 1:29 pm

yummy!!! GWN thanks for sharing the receipe!

the celeriac we bought from the store was pretty big and if i remember right i thought Deb's said the one she pulled was smaller then the other ones.....she may have responded on that in her thread......but im thinking 4 per square....but dont trust me on that.....maybe Lavander Debs will come along and share on how many per square she planted hyper

happy gardening
rose

GWN 1/26/2013, 2:42 pm

I bought 2 of them while in the city, they are MUCh bigger than hers. However hers look much yummier because it is right out of garden.
Yes we will have to wait to see if she comes along
Did you try growing them? rose?

**sanderson** 9/1/2016, 12:12 pm

Bump

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/5582/how-to-grow-celeriac

countrynaturals 9/1/2016, 12:45 pm

sanderson wrote:Bump

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/5582/how-to-grow-celeriac

I was looking at the wrong row. Celeriac isn't up, yet. Everything I've read makes it sound like a turnip substitute, but we really like the flavor of celery, so I'm looking forward to trying it.

countrynaturals 9/1/2016, 12:53 pm

Although a close relative of celery, this lesser-known kin is far easier to grow as long as your summers aren’t dry and hot. wrote:Although a close relative of celery, this lesser-known kin is far easier to grow as long as your summers aren’t dry and hot.

markqz 12/15/2019, 3:28 pm

This is the most recent thread about Celeriac I found.

Has anyone successfully grown this? It's supposed to be easier to grow than celery, which doesn't tell me much because I've never tried to grow celery.

It took more than 20 days to germinate. Then, it barely grew. Like it's taken a long time for the secondary leaves to show, and they are very tiny. Is this normal? Will it start to shoot up at some magic point in time?

Thanks!

countrynaturals 12/15/2019, 3:36 pm

Mine failed and I didn't try again. Not worth it to me. Same with celery. Sorry.

OhioGardener 12/15/2019, 4:20 pm

I grew Celeriac several years ago, but didn't think they were worth the trouble and didn't plant them again. They are slow to germinate, and they have to be started indoors 10 to 12 weeks before planting them in the garden - by that time they should be about 3" tall. Then after they are transplanted into the garden they need another 4 months to reach a large enough bulb to harvest - about 3" diameter. IMHO they were not worth the amount of space they tied up in the garden.

markqz 12/15/2019, 7:43 pm

countrynaturals wrote:Mine failed and I didn't try again. Not worth it to me. Same with celery. Sorry.

It's good to know I'm not alone Smile

OhioGardener wrote:I grew Celeriac several years ago, but didn't think they were worth the trouble and didn't plant them again. ... IMHO they were not worth the amount of space they tied up in the garden.

I guess this explains why they're expensive and hard to find. Sounds like they take most of a whole year to grow.

Yet they're "easier" than celery. Amazing that anyone grows celery Shocked

countrynaturals 12/15/2019, 10:20 pm

markqz wrote:Yet they're "easier" than celery. Amazing that anyone grows celery

My celery was skinny, bitter, stringy, and tough. Sad

Never again. I'm finding too many things that like me, to fool around with anything that doesn't. Razz

Dan in Ct 12/16/2019, 6:39 am

I have never had success trying to grow celeriac. I thought I would make a fortune supplying it to buffalo wing establishments, a salad and a side, I thought. Celery though is a different story. I use it as a follow to my garlic and keep it in 3" pots that I start in April then pot up to the 3" pot before transplanting in July. It grows slow but fresh celery rates right up there for me with just dug potatoes and fresh tomatoes, almost. I know those with limited space like to grow vertical for production but one square to celery one year might change your mind. I have found that celery and rosemary for that matter will give you an idea how good your seed source really is, by their germination rates. I have found both easier to germinate with the heat mat set at the right setting.

**sanderson** 12/18/2019, 6:34 pm

countrynaturals wrote:
markqz wrote:Yet they're "easier" than celery. Amazing that anyone grows celery
My celery was skinny, bitter, stringy, and tough. Never again. I'm finding too many things that like me, to fool around with anything that doesn't.

I tried a square of celery my first year. Bitter and small, so never again.

yolos 12/18/2019, 8:28 pm

sanderson wrote:
countrynaturals wrote:
markqz wrote:Yet they're "easier" than celery. Amazing that anyone grows celery
My celery was skinny, bitter, stringy, and tough. Never again. I'm finding too many things that like me, to fool around with anything that doesn't.
I tried a square of celery my first year. Bitter and small, so never again.

I finally tried for the second time this year and it worked. It became over run by the pepper plants that were planted next to it so it was shaded and not exposed to a lot of heat.

plantoid 12/19/2019, 1:56 pm

Last year the slugs devoured all of our celeriac . This next season I'll be doing a lot of slug pellets to see if we can raise a fair few . The long storage life is great ,
any harvested in November will see us through to March or so the year after.
I her the gasps about slug pellets .. it's been so wet & not so warm even the nematode control has shown signs of being overcome .

We have often cooked potatoes separately , microwaved carrots & parsnip separately and also lightly boiled celeriac .. Then mash them up together with a small bit of butter and split it up in to portions for two or three , heat seal & vac pack it then freeze it for use as needed once we have the current dinner amount set aside .

The reheated stuff is done in a pan and gets several twists of the pepper mill and one of salt on it . It goes well with thick gravy over soft fried onions done at the same time in the same pan as pan fried chicken meat sausages . ( Guess what we had for tea tonight ? ) .

**sanderson** 12/20/2019, 3:35 am

Plantoid, do you have snail bait of iron phosphate? So much safer than the old pellets containing Metaldehyde that could kill pets if they ate it.

OhioGardener 12/20/2019, 8:08 am

I like Sluggo Plus - it is Iron Phosphate and Spinosad - which gets rid of slugs & snails as well as the sow bugs that devour all of the small seedlings.

countrynaturals 12/20/2019, 10:08 am

OhioGardener wrote:I like Sluggo Plus - it is Iron Phosphate and Spinosad - which gets rid of slugs & snails as well as the sow bugs that devour all of the small seedlings.

This I did not know. thankyou

plantoid 12/20/2019, 7:41 pm

Thanks for the iron phosphate tip folks I'll do a bit if internet shopping for some .

markqz 4/15/2020, 11:35 pm

I'm beginning to see the charm of this plant. It took forever to grow more than an inch, but now it's becoming a beautiful plant, and the bugs don't seem to bother it at all:

celeriac ACneTCc

Of course, the important thing will be if I can ever harvest it. It's been a long wait.

markqz 5/17/2020, 11:08 pm

I decided after 6 1/2 months it was time to harvest. It turns out that I should have been de-leafing the plant. Apparently that encourages it to put it's resources into the root. I have several others that I've started to de-leaf, which means that I have lots of "celery" in the fridge. I'm using it mostly for stir fry. A little too something for eating raw. This stalk was 3 foot high or more (before trimming it here).

celeriac D8bzlp7

Although the foliage was pest-free, it turns out there were slugs using the center of the plant like a slug freeway. So the stem will go into the yard waste bin, not the compost.

The tiny root was sawn up and taste-tested. It was OK, but those purple cauliflower stems were actually tastier, despite the lack of publicity.

plantoid 5/18/2020, 11:55 am

When I saw your two posts above I thought What a Face

???? that likes like fennel & celery leaves .. that are about to run to seed Laughing

Taking the side leaf stems off from mid summer onwards ( July ) if sown in early May then transplanted out at the end of May will indeed see the crowns bulb up .

Depending on where you live wrt frost .. my aged 1964 gardening book says you can cover the bed with a thick mat of straw to protect them from frosts to have them right through to the spring next year .

I don't know if that applies to severe frosts that penetrate a couple of feet in to the ground .. perhaps experimentation is needed if you suffer six months of the year in the freezers .

markqz 4/28/2022, 12:03 am

According to my notes, today's harvest started in 2020. This is not as bad as it seems. I did one harvest from this same square previously, and then the small dwarfed plants took over and grew into the opened up space. In other words, it wasn't just these two plants originally.

celeriac 4w8WC0h

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