Growing celeriac

I saw in 'growing season 2013' thread that quite a few of us are growing celeriac, and I thought I'll begin this one for questions and suggestions

I've sown mine a couple of weeks ago, I read somewhere that germination can be very erratic, so I've sown quite a few. However, all mine have germinated I think, within few days. They are really tiny creatures, and I have lots of them, as seed is so small! I only want just few of them, I'll be happy even if only 6 or so grow to full size root.

My question is, how many do I need to keep at this stage? I will need to prick them out soon I think so they don't go all leggy competing with each other...

 

Never even eaten celeriac before I would imagine it's a turnip taste ?

I'd be interested to hear some more coments on this thread, good luck with your celeriac .

 

dandanuk - celeriac has a mild celery flavour so not at all like turnip. I love, love, love celeriac. I really should try growing it

 

First year for me, Lolimac sent me the seeds and a recipe for how to make them look like shrunken heads to scare Jehovah's Witnesses

 

Gonna haveto try this celeriac, does it have any special requirements o. How to grow it ?

 

Can't answer your gardening query, but, I can tell you how to cook it

Mashed
Cubed and roasted
Chipped and roasted
Replace as a topping for cottage pie
Makes a fabulous soup!
Grated and made into 'potato' cakes (rosti?), lightly fried

Scrummy!

 

Ooooooweeee can't wait to try it I may even purchase some this week just to try cheers Mum

 

To be honest with you, I don't even particularly like it! LOL I use both foliage and root in stews, soups, salads, but never as a main ingredient, it's got quite strong taste. I want to grow it, because it's hard to get it fresh with foliage, so if I can grow some and freeze it I'll be sorted for whole winter!

 

Long season crop ... need to start early IMO.

I sow seeds indoors, prick out, grow on in pots and plant out (before they get too big otherwise the roots suffer).

Remove the outer leaves towards the end of summer - which I think is supposed to encourage them to fatten up.

Prey for a warmer summer than last year!

Mine are never anything like the size of the ones in the supermarket ...

so beware that 6 might not go very far. I grow about 25, we use 3 or 4 mashed in with some spuds each Sunday lunch, during the winter. If they were a proper size I'd only need one each time I reckon ...

You could prick out 2 or 3 to a pot / module, and then thin them later. That way if you get any failures, or runts, you will have spares in the same pot/module. Thin them once they start to get crowded, and certainly before you plant them out.

 

The first couple of years i grew Celeriac they were fantastic ,the last two years they've boulted i blame the weather....
The good thing about Celeriac is no matter how big they get they don't loose their flavour....delish

 

Hello! So my celeriac seedling are doing fine I thinned them out to 3 per pot, and now need to repot them to bigger ones. Not sure how delicate they are, do you think if I try to divide them to keep them all they will survive? or is it better just to keep the strongest one and not to disturb roots? And also, what size pot is best for them? I wanted to keep them in pots now until I am able to plant outside around June....

 

I grow mine in 9cm pots to then plant out late May or early June.

Dunno about transplanting seedlings, I tend regard root crops as being no-no's in turns of transplanting. Depends if you have enough or not, and whether you will disturb the "primary" ones when you extract the "children". If you can do it without disturbing the main ones that are left behind then worth a shot I reckon.

 

I have tried to gorw celeriac on a couple of occasions and only got golf ball size dont know what i did wrong

 

Mine don't grow huge, like the ones in the shops. I don't know is that is partly variety though? I've only ever seen Monarch variety seed for sale locally. Last year was so rubbish that they did very little. I think sowing them early, to grow them as a long season crop, may be important.

 

I used your advice and thinned them out to leave one per pot. I have 10, but even if they're golf ball size I'll be happy.

Kristen I had a look at Polish seeds websites and they don't do many varieties either, but I came across few other than Monarch. I might bring some back when I go in the summer, for next year, to compare different varieties next time, so if anyone would like some, I will happily share