Your celery (and tomatoes in your other post) look so lush and beautiful! Now my plants feel extra delayed after seeing yours.. i guess that is the difference between starting seeds indoors in comaprison to wintersowing/direct sowing? You clearly know what you are doin!
That’s really kind but not necessarily accurate
. It’s been a rough few years converting to no-till with some bad batches of compost that had me harvesting almost nothing for a couple of years. This year, things are magically doing so much better! In the fall I did a late season spray on all my beds of AEAs Revenant Charge, which I’m starting to wonder if that’s a factor. I also dusted a lot of my seeds with their Biocoat Gold mycelium inoculant this spring. Those are the two minor things I did differently from other years, but man… The plants are happy like they’ve never been before. My collards and Asian mustards are HUGE when they were 1/3 that size last year in the same bed. We’re entering the humid zone where bugs and disease start to flourish, so we’ll see what happens next.
Don’t be discouraged! We’re still so early in the season with plenty of time for plants to catch up
That’s the difference between Delaware and maritime BC. Ashley had 90 degree heat weeks ago, and I’m sure her soil temperatures are ahead of us. Don’t worry too much about comparing the growth stage of your plants to people growing in significantly different climates.
I like to use mycelium too, it seems to help really well.
Wow, sounds like all of your efforts have paid off.. that must be so rewarding! I understand how challenging the transition to no-till can be. Ive been attempting to do just that for multiple years but my soil is still such compacted clay that i have to disturb it in the beginning of the year and a bit throughout the season. I hauled loads of woodchips last year/this spring with my baby on my back and have made sure to cover the ground at all times, plus try out some more cover crops this season. In due time i know itll pay off and i do see slow progress. Im also keeping my inputs to freely sourced so i add horse manure, woodchips, tree leaves, chop and drop, food acraps etc. and hope to slowly build the mycelium and micro-organisms. Either way, I’m happy to see everyone’s beautiful healthy plants.
Thanks for the reminder to not be discouraged. I get impatient sometimes and seeing your garden flourish makes me so excited to see the same in mine… eventually! ![]()
Hahah yeeeeaaah, even though i know climate has a huge impact on veg growth timing/progress it is still challenging for me not to compare. I feel like it takes forever for my plants to make any substantial growth but i get a harvest every year so… i guess it is like watching water boil ![]()
Celery is plugging along. We’ve been in a drought here in the East Coast for… Umm… Over a year? It was really dry with a smattering of very unseasonably hot days (90-100⁰) until maybe two weeks ago. Since then we’ve had multiple thunderstorms with heavy downpours which, while not making up for the dry weeks/months, is at least helping.
Celery is not in an irrigated bed, so even in all the drought and heat it’s basically been left to itself. I think I’ve maybe watered them twice since May. Some plants have some singed leaves, but they’ve otherwise put up with the conditions impressively well. They’re mulched with about 2" of leaf mulch, and planted into 4-year composted wood chips. They got a few handfuls of alfalfa pellets a couple of times, but otherwise they’ve been left to their own devices.
One new development since the storms started is I’ve had to pull maybe eight plants that were starting to show signs of crown rot (twisting leaves, blackened new growth). I pulled them all as soon as I noticed it, so none got far. I was really confused by the crown rot since I’ve had it before, but that was when my celery was in a bed that stayed too wet. That’s clearly not happening this year. Internet says it can also happen when the plant is stressed due to drought>deluge. Anyone else encountered this? Here is a plant that’s showing the twisted leaf pattern. I don’t see black on the new growth yet, but I’m expecting to see it any day.
Ah well, early harvested celery plants just means I start restocking my supply of freeze dried celery leaf powder early ![]()



