Celeriac

judy's picture
judy Posted at 08:11 on Sun, 08/06/2008
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Intro
Intro picture: 
Intro: 

It's an ugly looking beast, but under its knobbly, gnarled surface lurks a delicious, creamy flesh with a subtle celery-like flavour

Location and soil
Type of soil: 

Likes well-drained soil that retains moisture such as heavily manured, clay soils

Location: 

Celeriac needs to be grown in full sun or partial shade

Sowing seeds
Sowing seeds: 

The tiny seeds need to be sown in early spring to give the crop plenty of time to grow. Sow thinly in seed trays, then transfer the seedlings into individual pots once the first true leaves have appeared.

The seedlings must be hardened off before being planted out at the end of spring or early summer, with protection from slugs and snails

Looking after the crop
General care: 

Celeriac is prone to frost, so keep protected

In midsummer cut off the lower leaves to expose more of the crowns, then in early autumn, draw soil around the bases.

Too little water can leave celeriac woody, so keep an eye out in droughts

Harvesting the crop
Harvesting: 

The time from sowing to harvesting is around 200 days. Harvest from mid-autumn through to early spring when it's about the size of a large apple or a small coconut. When you've got light soil, it can stay in the ground all winter for harvesting as you need it.

If your soil is heavy though, or prone to waterlogging, harvest in late autumn and store.

Varieties
Variety description: 

Monarch, smooth-skinned and tender

Variety description: 

Brilliant, with large round roots

Pests
Pest or disease: 

Slugs, carrot flies and celery flies

celeriac

a.white Posted at 09:42 on Sat, 01/30/2010

My celeriacs are very small, not big enough to peel . Why. Can anyone help?

Celeriac

presidentposset Posted at 08:03 on Mon, 08/09/2010

We suffer from wood lice with ours in the winter.
I think that the celeriac is more of a safe retreat for them, rather than a food source.

nice update

farmerjohn Posted at 09:15 on Mon, 11/28/2011

i intend to try them next year, was given one to tast by by neighbour ealootmenteer and i decided to make chips

cut it into chip sizes and then added to boiling water and blanched for 3 minutes, drained water and added oil, salt ,curry powder and coated the cut chips in the mixture. LAy it out on trays and bake for 35-40 minutes on around 180C (depending ion your bake) keep checking and when ready take out of voer

Scoff