Bomber, sorry to hear that. Celery as one would suspect, requires copious amounts of water to remain sweet and mild. I seldom use the outside stalks anyway. Back when I first started growing it, I would harvest the whole plant, but once when I just needed a few stalks I removed them and left the plant and noticed that as long as the heart remains intact, it keeps regenerating perpetually. A couple dozen plants is all I raise anymore and when I need it, just take a sharp knife out with me to the garden, and slice off the outside stalks to pitch in the compost, take what I need of the more tender inner stalks and leave the heart. I have a greenhouse/nursery operation and those tall rigid one gallon nursery pans are abundant. I have found if one cuts the bottom off of them they are just the right height to use for a lot of garden purposes. I have used them as barricades around young head lettuce and cabbage plants to keep bunnies from nibbling, and also don't see why something like that couldn't be used to keep sun off celery branches. If the soil is at all worked up and loose, you can just push them down into it and they 'hold' and don't blow away, and become more imbedded after a few rain. Good luck.

I have been growing a particular type of celery for the past couple of years (Golden Self Blanching) that I would now like to save seed from. My is currently flowering. I was wondering if anyone had any tips or suggestions on how best to harvest the seed. Thanks....

If anyone is looking for another celery use, I stumbled across this recipe last night and made it to have for lunch today. It is quite good! Chinese Celery Salad Try serving this simple Asian-inspired salad with cold sesame noodles or stir-fried chicken with peanuts. From the book "Mad Hungry," by Lucinda Scala Quinn (Artisan Books). Mad Hungry, October 2010 http://www.marthastewart.com/349639/chinese-celery-salad 0Rated(0) Yield Serves 4 to 6 Ingredients 1 bunch of celery, top and bottom removed, stalks separated and cut in half lengthwise 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or white vinegar 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 4 tablespoons soy sauce 2 dashes Chinese chili oil or hot sauce (optional) 1/2 teaspoon sugar 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional) Directions 1.Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the celery and blanch for 2 minutes. Remove, rinse, and cool. Peel off the fibrous strings. Cut the celery into bite-sized pieces. 2.In a bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili oil, if using, sugar, and cilantro, if using. Toss in the celery. Cover and refrigerate to cool before serving.

When storing produce of any sort the first thing is get it out of that plastic bag, and contrary to opinion, do not wrap it in foil....... The moment produce is cut it begins a decaying process, and one of the key elements of that process is the natural production of nitrous-oxide gas (commonly called laughing gas). The gas expidites the decomposition process and if you keep the produce in a bag or in foil it traps that gas in, thus expiditing the decomposition. Taking this to the next step, I used to drive an 18wheeler hauling produce from Calif to Boston. All produce shipping containers are waxed cardboard boxes with air holes in them for ventilation. The boxes are loaded in the truck and they then blow in a layer of chipped ice on top and we set the refer unit at 34-36degF. The ice would slowly melt and keep a trickle of water going down through the load. Notice in the grocery stores most of the produce is in loose in coolers that have water jets to occassionaly mist the product, then the customers come by and make their selections, which they place in a bag. Tomatoes are the worst. If you grow your own you know that you can bring a vine ripened tomatoe in the house and keep it on a counter or window sill for 5 to 8 days, but if you bring them home from the grocery store they are still half green and hard as a rock, but still only last 3 or 4 days in the fridge. That is because when they pick tomatoes commercially they pick them green as grass, and after they are loaded in the truck they set a tank of nitrous-oxide gas in the truck and open the valve just before closing the doors. Three days later when we arrived at the wholesale produce market in Boston we used to laugh our butts off watching the guys unload the trailers. The trailers still had the nitrous-oxide gas (laughing gas) inside and no matter how tired or sore those handlers got, they could not help but laugh themselves silly. I even saw a guy drop a carton on his foot and broke a bone, yet he was laughing his fool head off and couldn't stop....LOL. We could make the trip from Calfornia to Boston in 3.5days and when we arrived the tomatoes were still green, but just starting to show a little yellow color. From the wholesale market they go out to the grocery stores the next day and by the time they reach the store shelves they are just showing a nice pale pink to red color. Take them home and leave them in a plastic bag and they will be mush in 4 days. The best way to keep celery is cut the bottom of the stalks and stand them in water. As the exposed portions start drying out they will absorb more water into the stalk keeping a nice firm texture. It is important that you cut a bit off the bottom before placing it in the water because when it is cut the end of the stalk will dry and form a skin, but cutting that back a bit exposes the stalk to absorb water.