Stick at it

At Malvern I staged my first ever entry of celery 'Evening Star' at such a high level. Whilst I didn't win a ticket I was more than happy with how they looked, especially as I'd grown these myself from seed, and if I hadn't been pushed for time I'd have titivated them up a lot more as some of the stalks needed straightening up having grown a bit off centre in the cardboard blanches. At the time I didn't know it but I actually staged them next to Ray Sale's winning brace. As you can see I got more blanch than him but they weren't quite as bulky, but all in all I'm encouraged to keep growing celery having considered not bothering after this season. Indeed, next season I have decided I will be growing many more celery in a raised bed that I normally grow my 250g onions in. The bed has a severe infestation of white rot so I have to find somewhere else to grow onions. I reckon I can get 20 celery in the bed and will erect a mesh barrier to stop strong side winds battering them down as currently my celery grow in quite a sheltered spot.

The key to growing better plants this season was plenty of well rotted horse muck in prepared holes and sieved soil on top of that to plant the seedlings into in late Spring, with a top dressing of dried blood and nutrimate a fortnight before planting. After that I never let them dry out, and when the plants were growing away well I gave them a couple of litres of water every day with a high nitrogen feed once a week, switching to a high potash feed 4 weeks before showing. I used Decis regularly to prevent attack by leaf miners, and later on Bumper to prevent blight. As I go to press I have 6 plants left, and I hope to stage 4 in a collection at Westminster next week and 2 at Derby at the end of October, frosts permitting.