How to Grow Celeriac
Celeriac is a delicious nutty root that can be used in many recipes from adding it grated to salads, to chopping it into chunks and adding it to a stew. It’s one of the more unknown vegetables, celeriac is the bulb version of celery, and it is grown as an annual plant, even though it’s a biennial plant. Most people think that celeriac is hard to grow but it’s actually much easier to grow than celery.
The only trouble is that celeriac needs a long growing season, you start the seeds off in the spring and you won’t get the big root bulb until late autumn to winter.
Sow the seeds as early as February in a tray filled with compost, water the compost and sow the seeds very thinly. You don’t need to cover celeriac seeds as they need light to germinate. I like to start mine off in the propagator, as the heat helps the seed germinate, alternatively put them on a warm windowsill. Once the seedlings are up, keep the plants in a greenhouse or in my case the conservatory.
You can transplant the plants into individual trays or pots so the plants get stronger before you plant them out. Once the risk of frost is over – mid to late May depending on your area, you can plant the celeriac plants out.
You should acclimatize your young plant to the outdoor conditions by hardening them off, you do this by leaving them outside in the day and bringing them in at night, you should do this for a few weeks before you are planting them outdoors. If you have a cold frame you can use that to harden the plants off.
Plant the plants around 30 to 35cm apart, some people like big celeriac root and plant them further apart to achieve this. Personally, I prefer a smaller root.
If you love eating celeriac and you only have limited space then you can grow celeriac in pots, but you could only really plant one per 12inch pot, so you would need several pots.
Keep the celeriac plants well-watered but it doesn’t like over-watering. It depends on the weather if it’s been dry for a few days then give the plants some water, if alternatively, it’s raining all the time then you won’t need to water the plants.
Looking after the crop
Celeriac plants don’t like to fight with weeds, so it’s important to try and keep the soil around the plant weed-free.
Sometimes the celeriac plants get some yellow leaves close to the root, you can remove these, but don’t overdo.
The roots are ready when they look big enough, which is usually from the autumn, you can leave the celeriac in the ground or lift them and store them in a cool dark room, many people choose a box and place it in the garage – if you store it this way leave some soil on the root so they keep better.
