Cultivation Of Celery

Northern Advocate, 17 January 1948, Page 3

Cultivation Of Celery

The time is almost at hand for the planting of the main crop of this important vegetable. Celery seed is small, slow to gex-min-ate, and not always reliable, so that it is perhaps better to purchase seedlings rather than to raise your own plants. If, however, you prefer to raise your own plants, and if you have a good take with some seed over, keep the residue, as the seed keeps well for six years without losing its vitality. Celery likes well worked, friable soil, well-enriched with animal manure, and well drained But the water-table can be higher than with most other vetegables as cclci'y is shallow-rooted. On this account, it likes the manure near the surface where the roots can readily reach it. If animal manure is in plentiful supply, it may be used as a surface dressing three or four inches deep about the plants, but not quite in contact with them. If animal manure is not available, use good, wellripened compost, reinforced with artificial fertilisers such as super, sulphate of potash, and sodium nitrate, but organic manure should predominate, and these can hardly be overdone.

Celery dislikes dry soil conditions. Keep the moisture present, otherwise the plants get a check, causing them to run prematurely to seed or to dry out.