Share GTS growing information and photos too.
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I overwintered my celery (GtS and the Buffalo Seed Company grex) under rowcover and leaves, with an outer plastic cover added when it snowed.
They overwintered fine, but started sprouting under the cover early in March; I was hoping they would stay dormant a little longer, and they got somewhat blanched. (See picture). So I had to take the plastic and leaves off to give them light. Despite the current warm temps (the last week has been in the 60s and 70s) there will be plenty of cold weather yet to come. I will try to cover them whenever temperatures look like it could go below 20. Last year, the celery survived the winter, only to be killed off by repeated temperature fluctuations in the spring. So this is the critical time. The upside is that the plants seem much more vigorous than the standard varieties I was growing the year before last. There are more plants that you can’t see beyond the edge of the photo.
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Looks like several stem colors, a good mix. Thanks for sharing photos and providing an update.
I had four celery plants going to seed, but the gopher chewed the roots off the red stem type, I put it in some moist soil…but it probably wont make it. I may not get any seed again this year. I cant plant again until fall season. Looking like my patch of volunteers will zero out this year. I still have seed from 2022, that was my best collection time for seed in volume.
Well, hopefully I can keep them going! Have you thought about starting some as transplants to keep things around when the volunteers don’t make it? Or are you not interested in them unless they successfully volunteer?
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Yes, this fall I’ll start as transplants. I prefer them as volunteers of course, less crawling around…lol. They grow well starting in November and go to seed by April. Its Arizona’s wonky season.
In general, I’ve found that self-seeding populations can be very sensitive to weather fluctuations year to year. For instance, I used to have a self-seeding arugula population, but it has been years since any came up and it is probably extinct. And I’d gotten used to being able to harvest loads of the purslane weeds from my garden, and then it all kind of faded out the last couple of years.
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Darn, I’m sure you could get a variety started up again. Its worth a try…I cant figure it out either, my greenhouse went un used for two years, no water on the spot at all. There is edible chrysanthemum sprouting where I had planted some but I cant tell if its the smooth leaf type or the jagged, but like 10 or so popped up where the drip line is positioned. Thats how the celery patch started too, i couldn’t collect all of the seed, the summer was dry no water on the growing area, and then we had a late rain that year and celery popped up everywhere. I kept watering and thus made the season and collected more seed. But when the tree was cut down, the guy raked up the branches. ..no celery this season except four plants on the very edge. And this week the first one going to seed, red stem, was just chomped by a gopher. The three left are 2 pink stemmed and one white stemmed…hoping to get seed.
The last celery plant going to seed. The gophers are eating everything from arugala , mustard, broccoli and the celery by just pulling the whole plant underground. I helped this last celery by potting it and leaving it where it grew in hopes it makes seed. I have the original celery seed from 2022 with the 4 varieties. Ill just have to start some again in November.
A few purslane came up in the greenhouse. Its a protected space, all the desert animals and birds are super voracious due to our lack of rain. No wildflower bloom this year, not much coming up either from the one little rain we had a few weeks ago.
