Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-11-03
farll1 aud fireside.
CELERY.

A correspondent recently asked for
some instructions for growing celery
in the south.
Up to this time there has been very
little of this vegetable grown in the
south. What has been grown has been
mostly by market gardeners near the
cities and these gardeners are rarely
Americans. They are Germans most
|ly. Now and then you will find an
American with the necessary patience
and perseverance to attempt a crop OF
celery and make a success of it, but as
rule we believe it will be found true
that there are not many gardeners
to the manner born-that are today
making celery either for home use or
for sale with any great success. Many
essay to grow it but in year or two
get disgusted with their efforts and
cease to make any further attempt.
Until a few years ago it was the
common belief that the only way to
grow celery was to set out the plants
in deep burrows anywhere from eig mt
to twenty inches deep, filling up the
trench gradually as the plants grew.
Only the tall growing sorts were plant
ed out.
Now the dwarf kinds, some of them
almost self-blanching are the most
commonly used. These instead OF be-
ing set in deep trenches are set on the
level or in very slight depressions.
In the south the "Bell plan" promi-
ses to be the most generally used.
This means setting the plants on beds
four or five feet wide and placing a
plant every six or seven inches each
way on this bed. The beds are not
raised. The soil is made very rich
with manure that is non-heating as
much as possible. Coarse unfermented
animal manure must not be sure.
Bone dust, (ine raw bone) along with
some nitrate of soda and ashes make q
good combination for the purpose.
The soil must be broken deep and
the manure we'll incorporated with
the soil to the depth Of eight or ten
inches.
The plants are raised (for the first
crop) in cold frames in January, and
stocky well-grown plants secured by
the last of February, when they are
transplanted to the beds in the man.
ner stated. For six weeks or more
the bed is cultivated frequently then
between the plants is well mulched
with pine or other straw. The plants
are straightened up and the straw
carefully drawn up about them and
put several inches thick. This is done
just after a saturating rain, or copious
watering.
The plants are blanched by putting
straw on the tops.
For mulching between the plants,
we have no doubt cotton seed hulls
would be found effective. Use which
ever material is the handiest or cheap
est and yet accompIishes the purpose.
The White Plume, Golden Dwarf
and Golden Self.blanching are all good
dwarf kinds that require very little
work to blanch. Where one prefers
"pink" celery the Rose is good.
Where a gardener has facilities for
watering freely several times, celery
growing by this plan is a very inter
esting and successful business. The
chief requisite is to get good seeds of a
good variety. In sowing the seeds in
frame seed bed they should bal ely be
covered with soil, then firm the soil
with board or hoe; water freely If
necessary and mulch slightly for two
or three days to keep the surface from
baking. The trimmings from the seed
bed can be transplanted to another
seed bed to get stocky before trans
ferring to the final bed.