[Thephoenix572]

Hi all

Is it too late to start any celeriac from seed does anyone know

[Kleftiwallah]

why not be the first Theph,  give it a go and then you can tell the rest of us!

I've grown it before and it's quite tasty, not like those football sized jobs they sell in't shops.    Cheers,   Tony

[arugula]

Its on the late side, but you could try. Most obvious problem I can see is their having time to get to a decent size this season. As Kleftiwallah says, why not give it a try and let us know the results. For the flavour, it is well worth growing.

[hogwarden]

Is there a good way to  give Celariac a feed-being a root veg. i`m a bit confused as to what is best for this crop...??-advice sought to improve on the golf balls I `ve managed in the past. I`m not after a football but a cricket ball would be nice

[arugula]

We just plant them in the ground in a mixture of our own compost and the sandy soil that exists here. I won't say they all grow to footballs, but they get bigger than golf balls.

[Christine]

Advice on the packet of seeds I have is to bring them on in tray, pot on into small pots and plant out when the first sign of bulbs appear. They are supposed to be a greedy crop and you need to start them off in a well fed soil. Bloke on plot next to me had fed his celeriac bed with well rotted pigeon manure from his lofts and he got some footballs last year.

[Kristen]

Is it too late to start any celeriac from seed does anyone know

Yes, too late. Unless your seed packet says otherwise?

Mine say to sow in Mar/Apr and plant out in June.  Maybe you can find plants to buy instead?

It germinates slowly, stays small as a seedling, takes ages to get large enough to prick out, and then doesn't do a  lot for quite a while.  Mine are now respectable plants, but still pretty small.

I don't reckon they would do enough, if sown now, by the end of the season.

[compostqueen]

You should be able to get some plants.  I have not planted all mine out yet but plan to finish doing them tomorrow

Growing from seed takes ages so I wouldn't do so in your case. It's too late

[Endymion]

Our celeriac took almost three weeks to germinate, I don't know if warmer weather will make it any quicker.

The seedlings were tiny, and then stayed tiny for absolutely ages - it was almost a month before they were transplanted into cells. I always seem to murder little seedlings, so always wait until they've got some decent sized real leaves.

Our plants are now only about three inches tall, looking like mini-celery. We've nestled some of them in a trench a couple of inches deep, in between two rows of French Beans. The whole bean trench was filled with kitchen waste for a few weeks, then well watered and covered with a layer of soil. On top of that is a cheap anti-weed membrane that lets water through, and tends to stop if evaporating too quickly as well. We thought it would help create the right conditions for celeriac, which I think is a moisture lover.

I think you might be too late in a normal year, but this year's anything but normal, so if it were me I'd give it a go. We're still trying to get parsnips to germinate, and it's meant to be far too late for those too. Same with Hamburg Parsley.   We're determined to get something, even if it's only tiny roots.

[Kristen]

Here's a picture of mine planted out a week ago. It was in a 3" pot.

It was sown at the beginning of March, so its 3 months old. It was raised in a heated propagator boosted using artificial light. So its about the size plants will be at the beginning of September if sown now. Waste of time starting from seed now.

[DD.]

Just planted mine out.

4" high, good root ball, started indoors, in March, moved to the frost free greenhouse when germinated.

No other artificial aids.

Agree too late to start now.

[Nicki85]

Just a thought, I lost my first lot of celeriac to dampening off so picked some plants up from the local gardening centre.  I don't usually do this but for £1.99 I got ten decent sized plants that are still going strong!  They are the same variety to 

 

[Salmo]

Too late to start from seed now.

As with celery the secret is to keep them very well watered. You will not overwater them as they are a marsh plant. Add liquid feed about once every 10 days, tomato feed will do.

[Thephoenix572]

Think I'll wait till next year now

[Trillium]

Be sure to mark your 2012 planting calendar for the proper time to start celeriac so you don't miss out again.