Dates of planting root celery seedlings in open ground
Self-grown vegetables are always tastier, and certainly much healthier than those bought in the store. This also applies to root celery. In order to get large juicy "roots", gardeners use the seedling method, and rightly so. Celery obtained with the help of seedlings grows up to 3 kg, while other methods do not give such a result.
The nuances of growing seedlings
One of the main points of growing celery root is meeting the deadlines for planting seedlings in open ground. The thing is that this root crop has a long ripening period - from 120 to 200 days. Therefore, only early varieties of celery are used to obtain seedlings.
Fresh seeds should be sown on seedlings, no older than one year. It is advisable to collect them yourself from fruits weighing at least 500 g.
Seeds are sown in early February so that the seedlings have time to grow by the end of April.
Site preparation
Place under the root celery in the garden should be cooked in the fall. It should be free of drafts, it is better to avoid shady areas. Root celery requires good sunlight.
Lean soil is fertilized with rotted manure (7 kg per 1 sq. M.) And superphosphate (10 g per 1 sq. M.). With the arrival of spring, nitrogen, potash and manganese fertilizers are also added to the site at the rate of 5 g, 5 g and 2 g per 1 sq. m respectively. Then they dig it up.
Disembarkation dates
Root celery seedlings will be ready to be transplanted into the garden when they reach a height of 10 cm, and will form at least 5 true leaves. The ideal time for planting seedlings is early May. If spring is a little late, you can wait until 15 for the soil to warm up and the threat of night frosts to recede. Disembarkation is done in the morning, preferably in cloudy weather.
Experienced gardeners recommend covering each seedling with a cut plastic bottle for the first time. This will save the seedlings from a sudden change in temperature at night.
Transplanting celery seedlings into the ground and further care
Seedlings are planted in small holes with a depth of 10 cm. The distance between the bushes should be 40 cm, and the row spacing should be 60 cm. Water the holes first.
When planting, the growing point should not be deepened so that the fruits do not have many lateral roots, which leads to a slowdown in growth and a deterioration in taste.
Root celery seedlings should be watered regularly, loosened the soil and removed weeds. The first feeding with complex mineral fertilizer is done after 10 days, the second - 5 weeks after transplantation.
In order for the fruits to grow large, in July each bush is dug up a little and the lateral roots are cut. A couple of days of planting are left in this position to dry out the cut, and then sprinkled back with earth.