Companion Planting For Celery

You can help your celery crop thrive with companion planting. Companion planting is a centuries-old method of organic gardening that places plants that support the growth and development of each other, near each other.

Companion plants deter harmful insect pests, attract beneficial pollinators, provide support and shade, enhance the soil, suppress weeds, and conserve moisture. Companion planting—also known as good neighbor planting—adds color, scent, balance, harmony, and health to the homestead garden.

Companion planting is an environmentally friendly, integrated method of pest management, which allows the garden to flourish without the use of toxic chemical herbicides and pesticides.

As an example, celery is a powerful defender of cabbage plants. The white cabbage butterfly can destroy a cabbage crop. When cabbage is planted near celery, the cabbage butterfly is repelled by the strong scent of celery. The cabbage plant, in turn, provides a windbreak and shade for fragile, young celery shoots.

Related Post:Companion Planting For Cabbage

If you love to munch on raw celery, or enjoy the crispy vegetable as a crunchy addition to salads, stir-fry, salsa, sauces, and soups, but worry about the noxious chemicals found in supermarket non-organic celery, grow your own with help from companion plants that protect celery the way it protects cabbage.

Best (And Worst) Companion Plants For Celery

Pungent herbs attract pollinators to the garden while repelling insect pests that can damage the celery crop. Helpful herbs to plant near celery include thyme, sage, basil, hyssop, horehound, tansy, cilantro, and dill.

如果你的花园在乡村，强烈的草本植物也有助于阻止兔子和鹿在花园里吃草。较高的草本植物为精致的芹菜苗提供阴凉，而百里香和鼠尾草帮助闷死有竞争力的杂草。

Experienced gardeners suggest planting bush beans, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, onions, spinach, and tomatoes as companion plants for celery.

Related Post:Growing Leeks

利用花的力量赶走可能伤害你的花园的昆虫，同时吸引有益的捕食者，如寄生黄蜂，吞食其他有害的花园害虫。万寿菊、金鱼草、雏菊、薰衣草和波斯菊散发出的气味可以阻止苍蝇、蚜虫、蚂蚁和白菜蛾。

避免在芹菜附近种植欧芹、欧洲防风草、萝卜或胡萝卜。这些植物奋力争夺同样的营养和水分。他们不是最好的邻居。

A Gardening Challenge

Cultivated since antiquity, celery (Apium graveolens)是一种庄严的绿色沼泽植物，长纤维堆叠成锥形的叶子，是胡萝卜的近亲。It’s a part of the plant family formerly known asUmbellifera. There are three different forms of the parentApiaceaespecies: celeriac, stalk, and cutting celery.

According to the USDA, “The many cultivated varieties now in use have been derived from the wild celery, which is a native of the marshes of southern England and many parts of the Eastern Continent. This wild celery was for a long time considered poisonous, a very natural supposition, as it belongs to the same family of plants asCicuta芹叶钩吻。”

Celery cultivation began in Mediterranean coastal areas. Highly prized for its medicinal properties, the Romans and the Greeks used it only as a medicine. It was not until the early 1600s that historical records note celery’s cultivation as a food crop.

For hundreds of years, celery was considered an expensive delicacy, reserved only for garnishing and flavoring purposes. Today, celery is no longer a luxury item and is a significant ingredient in a wide range of dishes worldwide. India is one of the largest producers and consumers of celery.

As long-season crop, celery can berather difficult to grow. Many experienced gardeners say it is the most challenging vegetable to cultivate in the homestead garden. Celery cannot tolerate heat. Celery requires nutrient-rich soil, consistent uniform moisture, high humidity, cool evening temperatures, and a long growing season of 130-140 days.

“Celery has a reputation for being a fussy, hard-to-grow vegetable,” writes the National Gardening Association. “There’s a lot of truth to that, but with the right climate and some care, you can grow large, tender plants. A dozen plants will take up five or six feet of row, and it’s worth trying.”

Celery Growing Tips

In southern climates, celery is cultivated as a winter crop. In the far north, celery does well as a summer crop. It’s a fall crop in most other United Plant Hardiness Zones. Celery roots normally grow about 6-8 inches below the soil level but can extend as deep as two feet. Celery requires loose, well-tilled soil and won’t flourish in areas with compacted clay.

Celery grows best in nutrient-rich, medium-textured mineralized soils enhanced with a generous application of organic matter. Amend soil with well-aged herbivore manure (e.g. cow, sheep, goat, horse, or llama.) Adding peat moss to the soil helps aid in moisture retention.

When preparing an area in the garden to cultivate celery, turn over the soil to a depth of at least 18-inches: breaking up dirt clods and removing rocks, roots, and debris. Add equal parts of peat moss, well-aged manure or garden compost, and landscape sand. Work them well into the soil.

芹菜在pH为5.8-6.0的土壤中生长良好。准备好园地后，测试土壤pH值，并根据需要进行修正。Soil pH testing kits are available online or at local home and garden centers, or you may take a soil sample to yourlocal county extension officefor testing. If your soil sample indicates the soil is too acidic, you can raise soil pH by adding a generous amount of wood ash or liming material.

Celery requires lots of water and thrives in a garden plot where a drip system of irrigation can be established. If celery does not receive adequate moisture, its stalks will be tough, stunted, and bitter.

Celery can be grown from seed or transplants available from local garden nurseries. Favorite varieties include:

• Tango
• Venture
• Golden Boy

Because celery requires such a long time to mature, unless you live in a region with an extended growing season, celery seeds should be started indoors 10-12 weeks before the last frost of the season.

• Celery seeds are quite small and rather difficult to handle. For ease in planting, mix 10 parts landscape sand with 1 part seeds.
• Lightly sprinkle the seed-sand mixture over a tray of potting soil. Cover with a thin layer of potting soil. Celery seeds need to be planted shallow. Keep soil evenly moist. It should about the consistency of a wrung-out sponge. Use a spray bottle to mist the potting soil, as direct watering will disturb the seeds.
• 需要耐心:芹菜需要长达三周的时间才能发芽。一定要把种子托盘放在温度不低于50华氏度的温暖地方。如果种子受到寒冷的天气，它们将无法发芽。
• 一旦种子发芽，足够结实，就把幼苗转移到单独的花盆里。当幼苗长出4-6片叶子时，它们就可以被移植到花园里了。
• 在室外种植芹菜幼苗直到土壤温度上升到50华氏度是明智的。芹菜对温度非常敏感，寒冷的土壤会削弱或杀死脆弱的幼苗。

Celery plants require at least six hours of full sun daily to reach optimum flavor and size at maturity. However, celery plants prefer shade during the hottest part of the day. Tomatoes, bush beans, and leeks, when planted as companion plants, provide noontime shade for shorter celery stalks.

Blanching Celery Before Harvest

Experienced gardeners recommend blanching celery before harvesting. Celery that is not cultivated in this manner has a tendency to be bitter. Blanched celery plants have a much lighter color.

Blanching is accomplished by wrapping the plant with multiple layers of paper or cardboard to block harsh direct rays of the sun from reaching the plant. Secure covering with landscape twists or cords. Another method of blanching involves gradually mounding up soil around the base of the plant until soil reaches the leaves.

Although blanching involves a bit more work, the result will be sweet, succulent, and tender celery you will be justifiably proud to share with family and friends.

Harvesting And Storing Celery

Stored in the refrigerator crisper, celery will keep well for up to two weeks. Celery can be canned, dehydrated, pickled, or frozen.

“Celery stores really well – you can keep it for many weeks with no trouble,” writes the National Gardening Association. “Dig up the plants carefully, disturbing the roots as little as possible. Replant them in boxes of sand in your root cellar or set them close together in a trench in your cold frame where you can keep them from freezing. As long as the roots stay moist and the stalks dry, they’ll really keep. Temperatures in the range of 35F to 40F are best for good storage.”

References:

Growing Celery, The National Gardening Association

How To Grow Celery, Library Of Congress

Celery, United States Department Of Agriculture