How to Grow Celery (5 Growing Tips)

One of my favorite parts of growing celery is walking outside and picking a stalk or two whenever I need it. Homegrown celery has more flavor than what you buy at the store, and I try to add it to as many things as I can while it’s growing. That convenience has earned celery a permanent spot in my cool-season garden.

I garden in Mesa, Arizona (zone 9b), where celery grows during the cooler months. I’ve grown it from seed, from nursery transplants, and from the cut-off base of a grocery store bunch. Here’s what I’ve found works best for growing celery at home.

How Does Celery Grow?

Celery is a biennial. It grows stalks and leaves first. Later, it sends up a tall central stalk that flowers and makes seeds. That’s called bolting. In my garden, heat or dry soil is what triggers it, and once celery bolts, the stalks are past their best.

Seeds, Transplants, or Scraps: What I’ve Learned

Transplants give the most consistent results, with longer, taller, thicker stalks. If you want to try the grocery store base, it’s an easy experiment. Plant it during the same window you’d plant transplants. Bury the base about 2 to 3 inches deep, and sprouts should appear within a week or two.

Celery Varieties I Like

I like Utah celery, and I’ve had good success with Merlin. Tango is less prone to heat and moisture stress. Giant Red and Chinese Pink add color. One year I also grew cutting celery, which grows wide instead of tall and can be cut anytime.

When to Plant Celery

In the low desert, celery grows best in the cooler months. Start seeds indoors from July through September. Then plant transplants outside from mid-September through November. I plant mine in October. My guide to when to start seeds indoors in the low desert lists celery with the other cool-season crops, and my list of what to plant in October in the low desert shows what else goes in that month.

In colder climates, start seeds indoors 10 to 12 weeks before your last frost date. Plant transplants outside once the soil is at least 50ºF.

How I Plant Celery

My celery grows in raised beds. It needs at least 6 hours of sun, but I like to put it in a spot that gets slightly less sun than the rest of the garden. A little protection helps it last longer into spring before the heat ends the season.

Sow seeds ¼ inch deep indoors. When the seedlings are ready, plant them 8 to 10 inches apart at the same level they sat in the pot. In a square foot garden, that’s 4 celery plants per square foot. My guide to plant spacing in square foot gardens has the spacing for other crops too.

The Trick to Growing Celery: Water and Food

The secret to growing celery comes down to plenty of water. Celery is about 95 percent water by weight, and it needs more water than most vegetables.

When I don’t water consistently, the stalks turn bitter, pithy, hollow, or stringy. Keep the soil moist but not soggy. I use garden grids to water my raised beds, and a thick layer of mulch helps hold the moisture in.

Celery grows best in compost-rich soil. Throughout the season, I feed a couple of times with a liquid fertilizer. You can also add compost around the plants as they grow. My post on how to compost in 10 simple steps covers making your own.

How I Harvest Celery

I start harvesting outer stalks within a few weeks of planting, even while the plants are small. I take a stalk or two from each plant as it grows and harvest often all season. My stalks come out thick, with more flavor than store-bought celery.

Water deeply the day before you harvest for the best flavor and crunch. When temperatures heat up in late spring, I have to harvest everything that’s left. Cut the whole plant off at soil level with a knife. If you leave it in the ground, it often bolts.

How to Blanch Celery

Grocery store celery is usually blanched, which gives it a lighter green color and a milder taste. Unblanched stalks are darker green and tougher, with a stronger flavor and more nutrients. I don’t blanch my celery. If you want to try it, wrap or cover the stalks with heavy paper, soil, or mulch about two weeks before you harvest. Leave the top leaves exposed.

What Goes Wrong When Growing Celery

I’ve had my share of celery problems. Most come back to water or heat.

Frost is rare where I grow celery. My side yard is more protected than the rest of the garden. If we get a hard freeze, I cover it. Here’s what to cover in a freeze and how to protect your garden.

Growing Celery in Containers

I put a few celery plants in containers during the cooler months. Use a pot that holds at least 3 gallons of soil. The hard part is keeping the soil moist, since pots dry out faster than raised beds. I use ollas from Growoya in my containers to keep the soil from drying out.

Feed container celery every two weeks with a half-strength liquid organic fertilizer. My guide to container sizes helps you pick the right pot.

How I Use and Preserve Celery

While it’s growing, I use celery fresh in salads, soups, and anything else I can add it to. At the end of the season, when I have to harvest it all at once, it’s hard to use it all. I juice a lot of it.

To keep harvested celery fresh longer, stand the stalks in water in the refrigerator. To freeze celery, chop it, blanch it for 2 minutes, and flash freeze it on a cookie sheet. Once it’s frozen, store it in freezer bags for up to a year.

One of my favorite ways to preserve celery is freeze-drying. I freeze-dry the stalks and leaves, then grind them into a powder that adds flavor to almost anything. Here’s how to make and use freeze-dried celery. I also use the dried stalks and leaves to make homemade celery salt.

Celery is one of the easiest vegetables to grow in a mild winter climate, and I’ll keep planting it every fall.

Growing Celery FAQs