A Seed Saver's Garden

[digitS']

Do you start them from seed @digitS'? Or buy starts?

Seed.

I have never seen them as starts in the garden centers.

 

[flowerbug]

Seed.

I have never seen them as starts in the garden centers.

do you use deep cells or ? ...

 

[Decoy1]

I thought to post a LINK to this thread about growing celeriac.

There is no secret to growing them that I know of except that they take a very full season. That means that the sprouting of seed indoors begins very early, like 8 weeks before last frost.

Yes, they can take some chilly weather but I doubt if they are doing much growing after the first frost of Autumn. The post also gives you some idea of the difference here between Fall of 2025 and a more normal 2023. They were harvested a full month later this year.

Steve

I’ve never grown celeriac as beautifully round as those in your link @digitS' but I usually get usable roots.

I just wanted to add though that in my climate I start them rather earlier than eight weeks before the last frost. I start mine in February which is more like 12 weeks before the first frost. Like celery they need a lot of water.

I don’t use deep cells, just ordinary depth. From tiny seedlings they grow very slowly for the first few weeks of their lives.

 

[digitS']

Using the word "beautifully" in the same sentence with celeriac has a touch of humor, @Decoy1 .

Long season crop — patience is a virtue ... as is early care, especially.

Regular 1204 inserts for the flats, @flowerbug . I see that the supply outfits are beginning to call those compact. Well, okay.

 

[flowerbug]

Seed.

I have never seen them as starts in the garden centers.

i've never heard of them until from you when i first came to TEG.

 

[heirloomgal]

I’ve never grown celeriac as beautifully round as those in your link @digitS' but I usually get usable roots.

I just wanted to add though that in my climate I start them rather earlier than eight weeks before the last frost. I start mine in February which is more like 12 weeks before the first frost. Like celery they need a lot of water.

I don’t use deep cells, just ordinary depth. From tiny seedlings they grow very slowly for the first few weeks of their lives.

Have you grown Hamburg parsley roots @Decoy1? Now I'm wondering how to grow those (or if I should) given that they need such an early start and yet dislike transplanting. I feel like my celeriac may have been a bit too hairy, I used another one today and it doesn't seem normal how much I need to both clean off them as well as trim before peeling. May I ask your experience with that? And mine certainly did not get to the baseball size that @digitS' did.

 

[heirloomgal]

I feel like so many people have some knowledge or experience of horseradish. I have none. I'd never seen it until I bought a small plant this spring and I don't think I've ever eaten any. From what people shared about it last time I mentioned horseradish, it seems like an almost weedy plant. I can't tell that yet since I only planted mine in June, but I did choose a spot hemmed in by bricks so it can't spread. I'm excited to harvest roots this spring!

Anyway, the whole point of what I'm getting at here is a neat little video by Bob Flowerdew recently. He was saying he always wondered why people allowed so much horseradish to grow on the farm he grew up in England, until someone finally told him it was the fiber. He did a demonstration where he had soaked a stem with a leaf on the end in a bucket for a month. When he pulled it out of the bucket much of the plant matter had decomposed, leaving behind this wonderful handful of strings. He showed a thoroughly cleaned stem and my goodness it was a lovely little abundant bundle of blonde fibers suitable for using to tie things up!

I found a link afterward while researching this, so neat!

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

Horseradish fibres for cordage – Woodland Ways Blog – Bushcraft and Survival

blog.woodland-ways.co.uk

 

[heirloomgal]

The carrot experiment has officially reached completion. It has been quite interesting really, more so than I expected it to be. Getting a nice big harvest of indistinguishable carrots would have been fine; I wasn't convinced there was going to be that much difference between carrots.

I am definitely going to be ordering more Kyoto Red, Kuroda, and Chantenay Red. Every single one of those carrots really stood - true carrot excellence. Black Nebula was stunning to look at, but the taste just wasn't there. Not sure if I'll grow that one again. Manpukuji was fun because it can get so big, but nothing else was remarkable about it and the digging so cautiously not to break the tips was a bit of an annoyance. All the rest sort of blended together without a lot of distinction. Tendersweet seemed too small and skinny (like mini Imperators), Baby Finger same. Autumn King was even below average. The Italian carrot varieties were nice. Nantes definitely gets honorable mention and as a foundational carrot it makes the cut. I still liked Kuroda better, but Nantes is not far behind because it gains size very early too, and has A+ flavor.

Dug the last of the 'Chantenay Red' yesterday before it snowed. I really do love this carrot, such a good variety with so many pluses. Big, easy to dig up, heat tolerant, excellent flavor, doesn't need deep soil. It shall now stay forevermore.

 

[digitS']

Inspiring photos, HeirloomGal .

I hope DW has the same response. Our growing looong carrots is problematic. Those are her preference but, even in some of our better soil, there are so many rocks that crooked carrots are way too common. In the new beds, a carrot intending to grow more than 8 inches is likely to hit very bad conditions. Interesting that parsnips tend to power through and then become nearly impossible to harvest without breaking.

I have grown Chatenays before but not the Red. Kuroda was just identified by that name but now I see the adjectives "Improved" "New" "Long" "Shin" ..? Nantes has been productive, flavorful and a personal favorite.

Steve

 

[Decoy1]

Have you grown Hamburg parsley roots @Decoy1? Now I'm wondering how to grow those (or if I should) given that they need such an early start and yet dislike transplanting. I feel like my celeriac may have been a bit too hairy, I used another one today and it doesn't seem normal how much I need to both clean off them as well as trim before peeling. May I ask your experience with that? And mine certainly did not get to the baseball size that @digitS' did.

I've never grown Hamburg parsley root. It looks very interesting and I think I must have a go. Like celeriac it seems to benefit from a lot of moisture. Presumably the leaves are good too, so double value. Apparently it's quite hardy so could be started early. And although it doesn't like root disturbance, it might be worth trying it in modules as if it's slow growing like celeriac it won't have very developed root growth after, say, six weeks.

One approach to growing parsnips, and so perhaps to Hamburg parsley, which can be quite successful is to germinate seeds in a small plastic bag in a small amount of moist compost in warmth indoors and then sow it once it has begun to germinate and just has very short roots appearing. It gets over the fact that the soil in March, say, is still too cold to germinate seeds. Of course, if you still have snow cover or the ground is frozen this wouldn't help, but in much of UK it can work well.

With my celeriac too, there's a lot of waste. Not so much hairy as quite a lot of thickish roots which twine round each other and which don't quite seem usable partly because they're difficult to clean. I end up just snapping them off and composting them. So the size of any main globe-shaped central part of the root is important for determining how much you actually get to eat! But it's a strong flavour, so even a small root can make a few good helpings of mixed mashed potato and celeriac.