I always wanted to try growing celery, and this year I gave it a try. Usually when I try a new vegetable, I buy it as a seedling. I purchased three celery seedlings this year and planted them April 19th. I am not sure what variety of celery I have. I will have to go out and check the little marker once the rain lets up. So far the celery has done well. The biggest of the three seedling required fertilizer about two weeks after being transplanted. Once I gave it a healthy dose of fertilizer (twice in two weeks), the leaves turned a healthy green again. We also had hot spell. It was in the upper 80s to 90s for a good week and a half. I took a stretched out netting that was designed to go around my finch's cage (to keep the seed in), cut the netting along the seam, and used it to cover my small row of celery. This shaded the celeries' roots and kept it from bolting. I am very surprised how well this technique worked. I hope to harvest my celery by the end of the month.

It's a bit difficult to comment on your planting dates, because you don't give us your zone. I know that Australia and New Zealand have growing times that are more or less opposite from ours, but still would be nice to know when you plant your veggies, and soil temps, etc. I planted some celery about 5 years ago - it was described as "improved" Utah (something), and it has been with me ever since, as I let some go to seed. Fresh seed works well, and harvested celery seed is great for an addition to the spice shelf. Granted, my zone is quite warm in winter - but perhaps the seed was nice and fresh as well. In our zone 10 - California, we plant celery in Aug, Sept, Oct and Nov., along with other crops - such as broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, etc., - cool weather crops, and celery is very happy with our mild winters, liking lots of water and can withstand shade when the weather becomes warmer. About your planting method - just a thought - does your container have good drainage? What about light - are you growing inside? Under light? No mold? These are all factors in growing from seed. Most vegetable seeds like warmth to around 70 degrees if possible to germinate. Good air circulation - once seed sprouts, remove the dome - to prevent mold formation from too much humidity. HOpefully, your seed is still viable. To test some - place a few seeds in a damp paper towel, place inside a plastic bag, keep warm - and see if they sprout. If not, then seeds are too old - try another supplier. Sorry - can't help any more than that with the information given. Keep trying! Bejay

I tried that trick with a Farmer's Market bought celery recently and had zero luck. Finally bought a four-pack of celery plants and was surprised at how well they grew without a swamp or any special care. Celery root (celeriac) is altogether different. It is easy to grow but takes a long growing season to size up and is slow to bring up to planting-out stage from seeds. Seedlings are miniscule for a long time--not the sort of things I would try sowing directly.

Thanks, Art. I moved the celery to the top of a piece of furniture that's out of the sun, but the temp there still gets up to 75 deg due to our woodstove, so I'll have to look again for another place. Perhaps a room on the north side of the house. I sure do hope that they'll sprout now! They've had time to be wet, so I hope that they don't just turn to tiny little grains of mush. I guess we'll find out! I transplanted some of the broc seedlings into the former pansy pots, so now we have 20 broc pots instead of the 10 I'd planned. I figured that we'd better go with our strengths! I hadn't thinned out all the seedlings yet from the original pots, so I still had plenty of strong seedlings to choose from the extra seed we'd planted.