The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1916-04-20
TO- GROW CELERY.
The Old Method Contrasted With the
New and Better One.

The Old Method contrasted With the
New and Better One.
Any person who has ever grown his
own celery successfully has no desire
to eat any other, and there is no rea-
son why any one who has the room to
grow it should not have his own win
ter supply. says the Cincinnati En-
quirer.
The old method was to dig trench
a foot and half deep, which was fill
ed with good loamy soil and stable
manure, in which the young plants
were set. The first objection to this
was that these young plants were
shaded part Of the time until they
grew up to the top of the trench, and
in the effort to accomplish this nature
grew them so rapidly that the stalks
grew long and slender and the crowns
did not bush out as they should. From
time to time, as the plants grew, the
soil from the sides Of the trench was
filled in about them, using the hand to
get it about the stalks, which was
back breaking work at the best. AS
the soil was ridged about them fire.
quently until growth stopped, when
they were allowed to stand until
bleached.
Compare this with the new way:
Select strip of mellow sandy soil,
following potatoes is good if the latter
were fortified heavily. Dig the soil to
the width Of two feet, as deep as the
top soil, working in as much stable
manure as it will take, not putting
it deep down in the furrow as you dig,
but laying it halfway up the furrow,
so that when covered it will be not
more than four inches from the top Of
to luxuriate in this later or. If you
have the time or assistance it will
benefit this soil if it be trenched before
digging. To do this, throw it out clear
down to the subsoil for width Of two
feet on the side of the row and allow
it to lie week and then put it back
and allow it to lie another week be-
fore digging. This must be done as
soon as the soil can be worked and
not when the weather gets warm, as
the soil should not be exposed to the
hot sun. Sunshine kills vast numbers
of the beneficial soil bacteria, without
which no soil is fertile. There is no
use in digging up the ground between
the celery roots, as this space need
only be kept free from weeds and is
used as a path as we'll.
OF course the celery seeds should for
an early crop be sown in the house or
greenhouse in flats thinly, and when
they have shown their third leaf thin
them out to two inches apart in the
flats and shear them off a half inch
above the crowns to make them stool
out. The more branches you get the
more heart there will be to the celery
The seedlings should be kept in Il
warm, light place, but not in the direct
rays of the sun, or they will become
spindling in spite of all you can do.
They may remain in the flats until
time to transplant them to the open
ground, but if you have not too many
to handle it will repay you to shift
them into other flats, allowing them to
set three inches apart and set them
out about the first week of June.
The rows should be leveled off before
the planting is begun and the plants
set level with the top and just as deep
as they set in the flats. It is the inten-
ton to grow them flat" just the same
as beans or peas. The soil is worked
about them, but never ridged up or al
lowed to have access to the heart of
the plants.
There is a reason for this method Of
celery growing, or, rather, a number Of
them. The one which suggested it is
the fact that all the diseases Of a fun
gous nature which afflict celery carry
their spores in the soil, and it is these
spores coming into contact with the
plants which cause heart rot, brown
rot and anthracnose, all of which rem
der the celery plants unsightly and Of
ten unstable. You have often noticed
the brown on the ribs of the outer
stems of celery? This is caused by
anthracnose, a fungous disease, the
spores Of which are carried in the soil,
and when the soil is banked against
the plants these spores find a Judgment
thereon and develop with the result
stated.
All this we avoid in growing celery
flat" and keeping the soil away from
it. In addition, the celery plant, like
others, develops best in the full light,
sunshine and air, and it gets all of
these when it is allowed to grow nor
mally as any other plant would.