Select your climate zone New Zealand - cool/mountain New Zealand - sub-tropical New Zealand - temperate What is my climate zone?

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
									P	P	P

(Best months for planting Celery in New Zealand - cool/mountain regions)

• Harvest in 120 days
• Grow in seed trays, and plant out in 4-6 weeks. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed.
• Best planted at soil temperatures between 12°C and 21°C.
• Space plants: 15-30cm

Most varieties improve with blanching but there are some self-blanching varieties available. To Blanch: plant in trenches 15- 20 cm (6-8 in) deep and 20cm (8in) apart. Leave about 40 cm (17 in) between rows. Fill the trenches gradually and keep well watered as the plants grow. The plants can be lifted as needed after about 11 weeks. Alternatively wrap the plants in sleeves of paper or black plastic.

Celery needs moist fertile soil.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Celery

Chop and use raw in salad or braised in hot dishes.

Your comments and tips

26 Apr 09 Ryan (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I planted celery seedlings in late February, they seem to be going fine at the moment. Your website says plant in summer though. Will they die before I can harvest? Is my celery doomed?

22 Aug 10 Wayne Jacobsen (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

September - October: Dig a trench 10 - 15cm deep. Fill with a mix of compost and cow or horse manure. Put a little dirt on top to fill trench. Plant celery plants in this. They grow quickly. Use old corrugated cardboard from a carton to wrap around plant leaving about 10cm of leaves out the top. This blanches the stalks, makes them longer. Watch out for snails!

27 Aug 10 Lez Howard (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I read that celery derived from a swamp plant . Last year I grew it in similar conditions in a shady area with tin up the sides and kept damp ,I used plenty of compost and liquid feed, I suprised myself with the results as I never had much luck in the past.

13 Nov 10 Courtney (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

I have planted my celery in a large planter box, how likely is it to grow?

03 Feb 11 Debbie WYATT (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

When harvesting celery and its darker than normal in colour and also slightly tough to eat, what could be a possible cause for this????

02 Aug 11 Lorna (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Can celery be harvested stalk by stalk, leaving the growing plant in the ground, the same way that can be done with silverbeet. I'm not keen on celery as a vegetable but it's essential for making a good stock for casseroles, stews, etc. I can't use up even half a celery plant and it's a waste of money me buying one in the supermarket.

07 Sep 11 Terry Manning (New Zealand - temperate climate)

AS the stalks get near maturity the leaves start to wither & are no good to harvest. The rest of the plant seems healthy thbat is the leaves that are too young to harvest. Hope ypu can help.

30 Sep 11 Grace (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

Yes you can harvest the stalks individually and Debbie I would guess your celery din't have enough water.

01 Nov 11 Clare (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I live on the West Coast and believe me, our celery gets plenty of water! Last year I was away for all of May and slugs really took over. They were everywhere so this year I'm going to try to keep them under control. Even so, I did I harvest a few stalks each day until the end of winter when a heavy frost hit. I bought a punnet of celery plants from our local nursery as I understand celery is hard to germinate.

09 Dec 11 Liam Good (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate)

why do you put paper around the celery