How to grow celery, including home care, as well as a description of the types and varieties of celery with characteristics and reviews

Description of the plant

Celery root is all seen, usually in a supermarket or market. Let's consider this plant in more detail. Celery (lat. Apium) belongs to the Umbrella or Celery family. There are more than 20 types of wild celery in nature. The most famous among them is the root celery, which is a vegetable crop.

Celery is a biennial plant. To get greens and roots for food, it needs to be grown for one year. In the second year, celery gives flowers, in the process of flowering, a fruit with seeds is formed.

Celery is essentially a herb with simple, pinnately dissected leaves. Celery blooms with small flowers that are collected in inflorescences. The fruit of the plant is the achene.

The root shape is pivotal. Reproduction takes place with the help of seeds, but the germination process is very long, so you have to spend time growing seedlings. Growing this way will help you get a great harvest. In addition, seeds that have been stored for 3-4 years always germinate better than freshly ripe seeds.

Description and characteristics of celery

Celery is a two-year or perennial herbaceous culture of the Umbrella family, whose homeland is considered to be the Mediterranean coast. The plant has a well-developed ground and root system. The green mass of celery is represented by a grooved, branched stem, on which there are large pinnately dissected green leaves that grow up to 1 m in height. The vegetation period of the vegetable is quite long and is 190-200 days.

During the first year of growth, the plant forms leaves and a root crop of a round, slightly flattened shape with elastic pulp. During the second year, a peduncle is formed on celery in the form of complex umbellate inflorescences, on which small greenish-white flowers are located. Umbrellas contain grains with a specific aroma inherent only in celery.

The flowering culture falls at the end of June - beginning of July. The seeds in the umbrellas ripen in August. The fruits of the plant are large rounded roots, weighing 250–800 g (depending on the variety), which have a slight division into two parts and are covered with ribs resembling threads.

Did you know? The first mentions of celery date back to the times before our era, when the inhabitants of Ancient Rome, Egypt and Greece used the described culture for a variety of purposes: decorative, medicinal and cult.

The pulp is dense, juicy, elastic. The taste is spicy, bittersweet, the aroma is tart, specific. Root celery is characterized by high frost resistance. Its seeds are capable of growing even at low temperatures, at + 3 ° С, however, + 15 ° С is considered the optimal temperature indicator. Seedlings of the plant are not afraid of spring frosts and can withstand temperatures down to -5 ° C.

Types and varieties

To choose a suitable variety of celery, you can only focus on your own taste and requirements. Each variety has not only its own appearance, but also certain taste qualities. The area of application of celery can also be different.

Currently, there are quite a few separate varieties of celery bred, but the following are the most popular among summer residents:

leaf - Gentle, Kartuli, Vigor, Zakhar;

Sheet

petiolate - Jung, Malachite, Gold, White feather;
root - Maxim, Diamant, Esaul, Gribovsky, Apple.

You can choose absolutely any of them, since the created conditions suitable for the plant, and the cultivation technique observed, will allow you to harvest a good harvest. It is only necessary to decide on the ripening time, since celery can belong to both early and late varieties.

What is celery eaten with

Many people perceive celery more as a spice and add its root raw or stewed to vegetable salads, to meat and fish dishes, to baked vegetables or as a roast for porridge. In such cases, celery is usually grated on a coarse grater and, if necessary, stewed in oil with the addition of seasonings.

But there are also those who like to eat celery as the main ingredient. To do this, the root vegetable is peeled, cut into strips or cubes, and stewed with other spices and vegetables. For example, onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, bell peppers, peas, coriander, pine nuts.

This julienne side dish will be a great addition to baked fish or lean meats. Diet fresh celery salad can be made with boiled egg or melted cheese. In addition, the vegetable can be baked in a basket in a creamy sauce.

Celery is quick to cook, so you can quickly make a healthy vitamin-rich breakfast or dinner addition while preparing your main meals.

Such a product will fit well into a children's diet for the formation of healthy digestion and saturation with vitamins.

On diets and in healthy food complexes, smoothies with the addition of celery are the best. It will make the drink less bland and add a specific spicy note. A glass of this juice on an empty stomach triggers digestion and ensures good metabolism and proper assimilation of food, normalizes stool and gives a feeling of lightness for the whole day.

Growing from seeds

Landing dates

You can start planting celery root in open ground in early May, since the plant does not tolerate a long drop in temperature. The plan for planting celery in the open field is as follows: 15 cm in a row and 40 cm between rows.

In the process of planting seedlings, it is necessary to ensure that the central part of the bush does not turn out to be covered with earth.

Seedling care

Once the seeds have begun to sprout, the ambient temperature should be no higher than 16 degrees. To prevent the seedlings from stretching out, supplement them with phytolamps. Every day, it is necessary to ventilate the crops, and the soil should be moistened with a spray bottle. If you create such conditions, the seedlings will turn out to be healthy and strong. If the planting comes out thick, thin out the seedlings as needed, getting rid of weak shoots.

Seedling

A pick is made after the first true leaves appear on small seedlings. When transplanting into another container, it is important not to fill in the central celery bud, but to deepen it only to the base of the leaves.

Celery root recipes and dosage regimen

Vegetables are added to dishes as a main or additional ingredient. - for piquancy. How to use celery root, we will tell you on the example of specific recipes.

Slimming

In the first place for losing weight fresh and celery-based smoothies: monocomponent or with the addition of other fruits or vegetables.

Fruit and Vegetable Smoothie:

A small apple, a carrot of the same size and 50-60 g of celery root are peeled and cut into pieces.
All ingredients are put into the juicer.
Add a few drops of lemon if desired.

Fruit juice:

Peel and chop the green apple and orange.
Add the peeled celery root.
Pass the prepared ingredients through a juicer.

Vegetable fresh:

Peel the celery and fresh cucumber (in a 2: 1 ratio).
Pass vegetables through a juicer.
To improve the taste, add 1 tbsp. l. lime and orange juice.

Losing weight ladies can also afford salads with celery.

Celery with fruit:

Take 300 g of celery root, a couple of small sour apples, one large carrot.
Peel and grind on a coarse grater.
Take half an orange, peel and cut into wedges.
Mix everything and season with low-fat sour cream or vegetable oil.

Celery with chicken:

We take about 300 g of boiled chicken, two pickles.
Cut into strips.
Peel the medium celery root and chop into thin strips.
Mix unsweetened yogurt with mustard seeds and a spoonful of lemon juice, pour the sauce into the salad and stir again. Salt to taste.
Leave it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and let it soak.

Prepare more satisfying meals that won't break your diet and will not harm the figure.

Vegetable soup:

Peel a large potato, medium onion, small zucchini and 200 g of celery root.
Cut everything into the same cubes and chop up some cabbage.
We put all the vegetables in a saucepan and pour chicken broth.
Cook over low heat for about half an hour, then beat with a blender until puree and sprinkle with dill.

Warm salad from celery root and mushrooms:

Boil 200 g of rice and 2 eggs.
Chop the peeled celery root on a coarse grater.
Saute it over low heat for 2-3 minutes.
Pour finely chopped champignons (about 0.5 kg) there and continue to sauté for a few more minutes.
Add rice, eggs and salt to taste.

It is better to serve such a salad on the table warm.

For the treatment of various diseases

In folk medicine, celery is used to make infusions and ointments.:

To strengthen the nervous system. Vegetable juice and honey are mixed in equal amounts. Consume 8 tsp. 3 times a day for 7 days.
For the normalization of digestion, with chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, for the prevention of viral and colds. 3-4 g of chopped celery root is poured into 1 liter of boiling water, infused for 8 hours, filtered. The infusion is taken 3 times a day for 1 tbsp. l.
With infertility. 50 g of chopped root is poured with 1 tbsp. boiling water and boil for 2 minutes, cool. Take 3-4 times a day.
For allergies. In a glass of cold water for 2 hours, 2 tbsp. l. crushed root. Drink 1/3 cup 3 times a day 15 minutes before meals.
For cuts, wounds, ulcers, rashes. 2 tbsp. l. thoroughly crushed root is ground with 3 tbsp. l. interior fat. The ointment is applied to the affected skin every day for 2 weeks.
For inflammatory skin diseases. Place celery leaves in a glass, pour vinegar to the top and add ½ tsp. salt. Apply to inflamed areas.

Before using infusions for medicinal purposes, consult a doctor.

In cooking

In addition to useful properties, the root has a pleasant aroma and unusual taste.... Celery dishes are always original, be it soups, hot dishes or salads:

Cheese salad:

Wash a medium sweet apple, remove the peel, chop on a coarse grater.
Cut one washed celery stalk into cubes and mix with the apple.
Add 100 g diced soft cheese, chopped dill, lemon juice to taste.
Mix everything, season the salad with unsweetened yogurt or sour cream.

Soup with celery and vegetables:

Place the washed and chopped celery stalks in a saucepan, pour 1 liter of water and cook over low heat.
Chop one small carrot on a coarse grater.
Peel a small onion, wash, chop finely.
Saute onions with carrots for about three minutes with 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil.
Finely chop 200 g of white cabbage and put in a saucepan with celery.
Blanch one medium tomato, peel it, cut into cubes and add to soup.
Cut the bell pepper into small pieces, dip into the soup, cook for another 10 minutes.
Add onion and carrots to the soup.
Sprinkle with chopped herbs before use, add salt, sour cream to taste.

Stew with celery:

Peel, wash and dice one medium potato and 100 g of celery.
Place vegetables in a saucepan and add half of the onion, peeled and finely chopped.
Pour water into a saucepan to cover the vegetables, season with salt.
Add 1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil and simmer over low heat until tender. Grind with a blender if desired.

Landing in open ground

When planting root celery in open ground, it is better not to rush, but wait until mid-May, when more or less warm weather sets in. During transplanting into a garden, it is important not to part (leave between the plants 30 centimeters on each side) and not to deepen the growth point.

Landing

If these planting conditions are observed, the fruit will turn out to be large, without the inclusion of unnecessary adventitious roots. After planting in the ground, you need to water the plants well. Planting celery seedlings is best on a cloudy day in the morning.

If there are concerns about nighttime cold snaps, you can cover each seedling on top with a cut plastic bottle.

Proper storage methods

Celery root can be stocked up for future use.

Let's take a look at the basic methods of properly storing this product:

Indoor conditions... The storage time of the root at home at room temperature is no more than 4 days.
On the shelf of the refrigerator... In the department for vegetables at a temperature of + 1 ... + 3 ° C, celery root can be stored for 14-30 days. For such storage, it is advisable to put it in a plastic bag.
With clay... In this case, the clay is diluted with water until it becomes sour cream. Each root is dipped into such a mixture, which is then dried in the sun. After that, the raw materials are placed in a cellar or subfloor for further storage. Clay perfectly prevents the process of rotting, and celery roots are stored for up to six months.
Dried... Can be stored for up to 1 year. The root vegetable is peeled, then cut into strips and dried in the sun or a baking sheet in the oven. Then they are placed in a glass jar and placed in the pantry or on the kitchen shelf.
Freezing... The root crop is cut into strips, laid out in portions in bags and placed in the freezer. The shelf life is no more than 1 year.
In sand... You can keep up to six months. For this purpose, a container of sufficient depth is filled with sand and the roots are buried vertically into it. The sand should completely cover them. Then the container is moved to the basement, subfloor or cellar. The optimum temperature for storage is + 12 ° C.

Important! When storing in sand, make sure that the roots do not touch each other. The stored vegetables must be free from damage and signs of rot.

Celery root is beneficial for many health problems, but it has restrictions and contraindications. Particular attention should be paid to him for men who want to improve the quality of their sex life, and women who want to lose weight.

Care

Root celery needs room. Make the distance between the rows 30 cm, and between the plants 18-20 cm. Place the plant in the hole so as not to fill up the apical bud, if you do not pay attention to this, you can be left without roots. After planting, the celery needs to be watered, sprinkle the holes with earth. Caring for celery is the same as when growing vegetables, which we always plant, it is weeding, loosening, watering, pest and disease control.

Root celery is very fond of loose soil, so after each watering, you need to walk along the bed with a ripper.

When growing it, you need to observe several subtleties, which not everyone knows about:

The aisles must always be loosened. This is essential for good root growth.
The soil should be constantly slightly moist, the plants should not be poured and the crust should not dry out. Watering celery is also necessary in the fall, when it gets colder.
Whoever says anything, never huddle celery roots, otherwise they will grow ugly.
When the roots begin to bulge out of the ground, you need to shake off the soil from them gradually, then they will grow faster and become even.

Features of growing root celery, depending on the variety

The correct selection of varieties and selection of seeds will help to grow an excellent harvest of root celery in the country. The seeds must be fresh, no more than one year old. It is worth buying them from trusted suppliers, and it is better to give preference to firms that produce planting material. Many of them sell through branded retail outlets or online stores.

As for the varieties of root celery, the following are the most popular types among summer residents and some rules for caring for them.

Root celery Prague giant - one of the most successful early maturing varieties. From the moment of germination to harvesting, no more than four months pass, which makes it possible to grow it in regions with a mild climate by sowing seeds in the ground. The pulp of large fruits is juicy and tender. In order for it to retain its qualities, the plant needs abundant watering. Tubers practically do not form lateral roots, which greatly facilitates maintenance.

Root celery Apple, despite some shortcomings, is popular with summer residents. Reacts strongly to changes in weather conditions, and depending on them, ripening times can vary from three to five months. Requires shading in hot and sunny weather and abundant feeding in cold weather. It is prone to the formation of a large number of lateral roots, which must be removed periodically. Efforts are compensated by the excellent sweetish taste of root vegetables and their keeping quality.
Root celery Diamond - mid-season variety. Harvesting begins 160-170 days after germination. Forms even, neat roots and does not require lateral pruning. The variety has a high cold resistance.
Root celery Strongman also applies to mid-season varieties. Root crops grow up to 400-500 grams. During the growing season, they require a lot of moisture and nutrients. Lateral roots are low, and their number is small. Therefore, in the process of growing, it is not necessary to free the tops and cut off the processes.

Root celery Maxim - a late-ripening variety with good keeping quality of root crops. When growing, it requires regular loosening and removal of lateral roots.

Recently, new varieties of root celery have appeared every year. The main efforts of breeders are aimed at increasing the germination of seeds and obtaining large, uniform root crops with a flat surface, increasing the resistance of plants to shooting and flowering.

Diseases and pests

Growing celery from seed to seedling, cultivating stalk celery, or even subsequent cultivation of celery root can be offset by pests and diseases that attack the plants throughout the ripening period. Correct agricultural technology, as well as prevention, can resist them.

Bacterial spot

To prevent the spread of bacterial spotting, heart rot, white stem rot, viral mosaic, black leg and celery stalk base rot in the garden and in plants, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the basic norms of plant cultivation. Among them, only timely watering, the exclusion of waterlogging of the soil, thickening of the planting, as well as the spread of weeds in the bed.Common celery pests can also be carriers of diseases: scoops, carrot fly larvae, various snails and slugs, which should be disposed of in time by prevention and spraying.

Mixing planting with, for example, other herbaceous plants or vegetables can be an excellent method of preventing crop loss.

How to grow root celery properly

But do not rush and run to the store for seeds to grow root celery from seeds on your own. Culture requires certain conditions, skills, and thorough adherence to the rules of agricultural technology. Otherwise, in the fall, you can get many small tubers of a non-marketable type with ugly lateral roots and outgrowths. But you shouldn't be afraid either. As a rule, you don't need a lot of root celery, and beginners can also handle small areas.

The following activities during the growing season will help to grow a large celery root:

Regular abundant watering. Large root crops need moisture. With its lack, they become dry, tough, bitterness appears in the taste. Root celery tends to crack and void when irrigated. Mulching the soil with sawdust will help retain moisture.
Root celery needs balanced feeding. You cannot overload the plant with nitrogen fertilizers, since there is a high risk of the formation of a large number of lateral shoots on the tubers and active growth of green mass. But their lack, especially on poor soils, is undesirable and threatens the formation of small tubers.

One of the components of the cultivation of root celery is the systematic loosening of the soil in order to give root crops space for growth and development.
There is no need to huddle the plants, let alone sprinkle the growth points. On the contrary, root crops need to free the tops from the soil and trim the lateral roots. Closer to autumn, they begin to cut off the side leaves in order to accelerate the growth and ripening of vegetables.

Attention!
When growing root celery, you cannot cut the foliage during the growing season. In this case, the nutrition of root crops is disrupted and their growth slows down. If necessary, choose several plants, from which they cut the foliage, not counting on the growth of tubers.

In principle, growing and caring for root celery is not difficult. Any vegetable crop will require attention and time. Growing celery root seedlings from seeds causes more questions among vegetable growers, both professionals and beginners. Root celery belongs to crops with long ripening periods - from 160 days or more. Therefore, even in the southern regions, it is rarely possible to apply the seedless method.

Harvesting and storage

Celery grows until frost. After digging up, the roots are cleaned of the ground, the leaves are cut off. In winter, it can be stored, just like other root crops, in a cellar in damp sand. I use it every day and should always be at hand. Therefore, after harvesting, I wash all the roots well, dry them and cut them into small cubes. Part I lay out in a thin layer in bags and freeze, and part I dry, then I store in a ceramic jar.

Picking celery

Celery juice is used as a diuretic. It helps with kidney disease, gout, and intestinal problems. It stimulates the appetite and has a choleretic effect.

Unfortunately, not everyone gets good celery; root cultivation has several subtleties:

do not bury the seeds deep in the soil,
water the seedlings with care,
when planting seedlings, do not cover the apical bud with earth,
loosen the plants more often.

Useful properties of celery root

100 g of vegetable contains:

water - 82 g;
proteins - 1.3 g;
fats - 0.3 g;
potassium - 390 mg;
carbohydrates - 7.1 g;
fiber - 1 g;
organic acids - 0.1 g;
ash - 1.1 g

Vitamins:

A - 0.01 mg;
B1 - 0.03 mg;
B2 - 0.05 mg;
B3 - 1 mg;
B9 - 7 mcg;
C - 8 mg.

Celery has many health benefits:

helps with exhaustion and anemia;
mitigates the effects of stress;
relieves irritability and has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the nervous system;
accelerates metabolism;
improves memory and improves concentration;
lowers blood pressure;
fights respiratory diseases;
participates in blood clotting processes;
improves joint mobility;
has diuretic and laxative effects;
cleanses the body of toxins and toxins;
neutralizes the harm of carcinogens that enter the bloodstream when smoking;
slows down the aging process;
improves the appearance of nails and teeth;
helps with migraines.

For women

Celery, a valuable product in the diet of womenit supports feminine beauty and health:

removes toxins and toxins from the body;
makes the skin soft, supple and radiant;
strengthens nails and hair;
has a calming effect on the nervous system, which ensures sound and healthy sleep;
protects the urinary system;
strengthens the walls of blood vessels and prevents the development of varicose veins;
helps with weight loss.

For men

For the strong half of humanity, the root crop benefits no less:

strengthens male strength thanks to the hormone androsterone in the composition;
protects against prostatitis and helps with its chronic form;
prevents genitourinary infections;
enhances the production of sex hormones;
improves potency thanks to mustard oils.

For kids

Celery is given to children from nine months:

it helps to cope with mild nervous disorders;
relieves puffiness;
improves concentration of attention;
has an antiseptic effect;
strengthens bones, tooth enamel.