[rowlandwells]

who grows celery these days self blanching or trench? I grew a self blanching variety this year in a razed bed and it turned out good still using it tastes good

tried growing trench celery for two years ended up a real failure would really like to grow a red variety like red giant my father in law used to grow pink celery called it dirty celery I can remember that being sold on the veg market autumn time it was a nice tasting celery but needed a good clean before eating so called dirty celery

I found trench celery needed a lot of preparation prior to planting and self blanching was much more easy to grow and there wasn't the slug damage I expected

does any of you grow celery self blanching or trench would be interested to hear how you grow your celery and if it turned out what you expected

[snow white]

I have tried both.  Both were riddled with slugs even with pellets down  Rather buy them at the shop when I need them.  Haven't tried again after three years of failure.  Self blanching were less trouble though.

[Plot 1 Problems]

I'm struggling with a celery dilemma; I've been given some seeds for self-blanching celery, but none of us are big fans of the stuff, so it would only be grown for making stock. Is it really that much of a pain to grow?

[New shoot]

It is a bit of a faff tbh.

I have grown the self blanching type and it needs a lot of watering to get to a decent size.  I've also grown a red stemmed one that said it was easy care on the packet.  The plants were small, but amazingly strongly flavoured.  Ideal for soups and stews, but it needed a lot of cleaning.  Dirty celery is a good name 

It is on my 'too time consuming' list with celariac these days.  I don't go the plot often enough to really care for it and water.

If you want an easy option, celery leaf herb is easy to grow and gives a mild celery flavour to salads 

[Mr Dog]

I grow about a dozen plants every year and apart from a once (or possibly twice if it's very dry) a week soaking I basically let them get on with it. I usually get decent sized plants which are used raw in salads and cooked in soups and stews. I've tried a few varieties but have found Lathom self blanching to give reliable crops - Red Giant and Utah whilst giving larger plants were quite stringy (presumably due to my neglectful growing method).

As mentioned by New Shoot, celery leaf is very easy to grow, although the seeds I have produce plants with a very strong celery flavour!

[jaydig]

I have tried both.  Both were riddled with slugs even with pellets down  Rather buy them at the shop when I need them.  Haven't tried again after three years of failure.  Self blanching were less trouble though.

Same here.  I tried for three years and then gave up.

[AlaninCarlisle]

I'd love to grow good celery but the only way I could do it would be with slug bait, like I mean I'd have to metaldehyde it to within an inch of killing it

[rowlandwells]

 I can't seem to get my head round growing celeriac though as it suggests its part of the celery family I think  that's got to be one of my goals for next year

I've never had any problem sowing celery I find there's more than enough plants and end up throwing most of them on the compost heap looking for a good red celery self blanching variety

[AlaninCarlisle]

I can't seem to get my head round growing celeriac though as it suggests its part of the celery family I think  that's got to be one of my goals for next year

There are several key requirements with celeriac. If you meet these, it's straightforward:

• Needs rich moist soil
  Needs a very long season. I germinate in March and plant out in late April/early May to harvest in October onwards
  Need to remove the side shoots once the veg starts to bulk out and the horizontal shoots start to wilt

[sunshineband]

Despite having more time than some, I struggle to provide enough water to grow decent celery, so this year am trying celery leaf as a stock/soup flavouring.

Sorry, not really an answer to the original question, I know, but it seemed the spot to mention this