[iggyboy60]

Has anybody had first hand experience with Celeriac? I am at the seedling stage and wondered if potting on would be best right away. The seedlings are only just showing.

[Salmo]

I would wait until you see the first true leaf after the seed leaves.

[Kleftiwallah]

I believe celeriac may copy parsnips and the roots become gnarled and twisted if transplanted.  BUT I may be wrong.  I'd take as much soil as I could when transplanting to reduce chance of disturbing the roots.   Best wishes and keep us informed on the outcome.   Cheers,   Tony.

[Bluedave]

I grew loads last year - planted the seeds directly into the bed in about June (from memory.... I think), same with swede.

[Kristen]

Celeriac seedlings are tiny, and grow slowly. I would leave them in the seed tray quite a while longer. If you prick out now they will still only grow slowly, but will be harder to get the watering right - the pots will hold a lot of water, relative to the size of plant.

I prick mine out into 3" pots, I don't think transplanting makes any difference to them, but you could use newspaper pots / loo rolls if you are concerned about that.

[compostqueen]

I grow mine in trays and pot on but they are so tiny and seem to grow so slowly that you think they'll never make strong plants. They do though   

[waxwing]

I don't pot on, I thinly seed in a tray then plant out when big enough. I did have a big problem with a hard early frost though. It made them go soggy and die, just hope I keep an eye out for frost this year.

Steve

[waxwing]

Great minds Compost Queen, cant believe we posted at the same time 

[barbarella]

Do you think my celeriac Monarch are big enough to plant out now (see photo)?  I started them on 9 April,  and  pricked them out into 40 module trays when large enough to handle.  The roots are starting to show now.  I was wondering whether to prick them out into larger modules or plant them straight out.

I was interested in what Kristen said about potting on though.  I think I did that with my peppers.  I sowed them really early this year, in February, but they are still tiny and weedy, so maybe I potted them on too early?

[waxwing]

Mine were about that big when I transplanted them a few weeks back, all look fine and are growing well.

Steve

[Kristen]

I'd let them grow on a bit more. They are a long-season crop, so if you can give them some protection early, and make a bigger plant before planting out, I think that translates to a better crop. Important they don't get too pot bound though. (They need to be under glass to hurry them up; if you've got them outside hardening off / whatever then you might as well plant them; if you have then under glass they will still need a week or so hardening off before planting out).

If I have a mo. tomorrow I'll take a photo of my plants just by way of comparison.

[Bing]

Do you think my celeriac Monarch are big enough to plant out now (see photo)?  I started them on 9 April,  and  pricked them out into 40 module trays when large enough to handle.  The roots are starting to show now.  I was wondering whether to prick them out into larger modules or plant them straight out.

I was interested in what Kristen said about potting on though.  I think I did that with my peppers.  I sowed them really early this year, in February, but they are still tiny and weedy, so maybe I potted them on too early?

I planted my tiny celery plants (slightly smaller than yours) today, they were very slow in the little pots and I thought I just plant them out and let them choose their own future.

[barbarella]

(They need to be under glass to hurry them up; if you've got them outside hardening off / whatever then you might as well plant them; if you have then under glass they will still need a week or so hardening off before planting out).

They have been in a cold frame with the lights removed for a couple of weeks, so I guess I  had better plant them out in the next few days.  We'd like to see the photo though Kristen 

[cooperman]

celeriac needs a long growing season so should be started off under heat early in modules. Grow on until big enough to plant out (about now)
The reason you start off early is that they will not stand over winter.

As an addendum celeriac is not a root vegetable, the part that looks like a root is actually the swollen stem.  To encouarge this you should remove the lower leaves as the plant grows (once its got to a fair size of course) I grow celeriac every year, very underated veg in my opinion.

[Missy1970]

Mine are more or less the same size are Barbarella's - they were this size last year when I planted them out and I did lose some - think they wilted to nothing in the heat so leaving mine to be a little bigger this year - due to time restraints they will not be going anywhere for the next 3 weeks as the schools breaks up AGAIN!

I started mine off in seed trays then after the first true leaves appeared I put them into small pots/modules

Determined to water/soak them every day I keep hearing how thirsty they are!

Missy