As we approach mid September and it is absolutely getting colder, this is the last of my container gardening posts and experiments. Today I am finishing my series with my container gardening of Celery and experimenting with soils, seeds and growing celery from the bottom of the stock. Following me to see the results.
I did a post back in June where I demonstrated how I grew roots on a finished celery, that I had purchased at the store. As seen here in the bowl.
June 13, 2017
This is 7 days later when I planted it in my garden. This is my raised bed. The soil mix is sheep manure and black earth. I did not fertilize this plant at all.
June 20, 2017
Now this is today. It is healthy a little slim or skinny stalks but good just the same. I intent to leave it to pick over the winter months, as it is a cold hardy plant.
September 10, 2017
Now this is a celery plant that I started from seed back on June 13, 2017. I chose to plant it in a planted container, with about 2 inches of black earth, cow manure and a handful of sand. I chose not to fertilize the plant. As you can see it has not done as well as the one planted from the store that I grew roots from. The location is approximately 2 feet away from the other plant so exposed to the same environment.
This last picture is of a Celery plant that I purchased at the nursery as a seedling and planted it on the 14th of June, 2017. So around the same time as the first picture and the same time as I planted from the seeds. It is located in a raised bed. I planted and fertilized this one with sheep manure, black earth. No fertilizer. As you can see it had done well. The level of soil in my raised bed is about 2 feet. It is in the same environment as the others.
In conclusion, I will leave all but one of my celery plants to pick throughout the winter, and will be covered with the hoop structure to shield from the snow. The other plant I will pick tomorrow and chop it up and place in airtight bags and throw in my freezer for soups and sauces all winter long. I hope you have learned something from my last experiment. I intend to grow some celery indoors this winter, and will be starting my seeds next week. I intend to do a series of container gardening indoors over winter months, so stay tuned folks.
Happy Trails