Saturday 23 January 2016

Another way to propagate Celery


O.K. So before I tell you about the Celery...I dont drink alcohol at all ,...I just never acquired the taste for it . Nope that beer is being set aside for slug pubs in my veg garden !
 The Mistletoe is there to remind me that I begun the "Celery Experiment " just around Christmas and that mistletoe is actually now out on my apple trees for the blackbirds  to eat .
                                               The Celery Experiment .

 I think I have mentioned the  Allotments4All Forum before , but if you dont know already , it is a very good place to learn about growing vegetables and ornamental gardening too . You can ask questions and join in discussions , learn the regional timings  for sowing /planting , new and better ways of growing  things , tips etc.
 Somebody on the Forum was talking about how they save the left over bottom of a bunch of store bought Celery and grow it in a jar of water  , until it puts out roots , then plant it out in the garden . Brilliant idea !
 So I thought I,d give it a try !  I had missed the timing for growing Hyacinths in these Hyacinth vases , but they are the perfect thing for getting the bottom of the left over Celery bunch to root .

It is slow to start with and I had to keep topping up the water, celery is a very thirsty , water loving plant . Actually if you try this ,only fill the water up to the very base of the bunch .In the picture above I had topped it up a little too much  .
 The photo above shows how the roots have grown in just four weeks or so  !


                         Remove from the vase , sorry about very blurred photo .


                                                       Ready to plant out !


 Although the weather is very mild here in the far South West of  Cornwall  , I decided to pot mine up and keep it in a more sheltered place until all chance of frost has passed .
   So I have given it a good drink and in fact today has been rainy and really quite mild ,so I have left it out in the rain , rain water being so much better for plants than tap water .


Celery is quite a tough plant and I,m sure can acclimatise fairly quickly , I wont plant mine out into the garden until all chance of frost has passed..I know I just said that , but I thought it good to say one more time . ..wouldn't want to lose it after all !
 If it turns bitterly cold again , I will bring it back indoors and put it on my cool North facing windowsill  .
  After it has been planted outside , I will only take a few stalks at a time and keep the mother plant growing ...and one plant will be enough for my needs .
 

          I,m thinking that it could also be grown in a tub . Celery , graceful green vegetable , so good and healthy for us to eat  .....but I,ll leave it's wonderful health giving properties for you to go away and research for yourselves  .
                    Experiment over ...it works !     Free food !   Give it a go folks !

4 comments:

  1. I've heard of this before so I enjoyed seeing your photos x

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    1. Yes , I have grown celery from seeds too. They germinate very easily, very teeny tiny seedlings to separate and pot on , I grew far too many one year . They also stand the winter very well , growing to huge size .This is a fun thing to do with the children , to get them into gardening and growing things.

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  2. This is new to me. I buy and eat a lot of celery..soups, stews, salads etc, maybe a head a week. This looks fun and a nice 'Kitchen Window Sill' decoration..I shall look out for a bulb vase and have a try.

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    1. Oh ! You can do this with a jam jar , doesn't have to be a hyacinth bulb vase : )

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