Kitchen Garden Forum

Searching on google for ways to store our celeriac I was fascinated by all the comments on this knobbly veg on KGF. We have grown the best crop of celeriac EVER this year. 2 years ago I persuaded my husband to try Trenching with our enormous compost pile. So last September he dug a 10/12 inch trench and filled it from the compost heap and then buried it. In the Spring he rotavated it with the rest of the veg patch ready for planting.
I sew the seeds in a tray in February covered in cling film and leave on a sunny windowsill in the house. When there are 3 or 4 leaves I prick out into 3 inch pots and put them in a cold greenhouse In late March. When the plants are strong with plenty leaves and roots start to appear at bottom of the pot hubby plants them out in the soil where the trenching was done. Water every evening unless it has rained and feed with chicken pellets during the summer. The ones we are pulling now are 5 inches across. We want to lift and store them before the slugs get them, any tips?
I use Monarch seeds, tried Prague last year and they were poor.

Strangely, our celeriac is doing very well this year, too (Monarch), but I leave them in the ground until I actually want to use them. Only when there is the threat of very cold weather do I dig them up and then use them up as soon as possible. I suppose you could build a clamp to keep them, Gulp?

By the way, we have never known slugs attack celeriac, only carrot root fly, but the damage is not usually as severe as on carrots.

I'm very pleased with mine too this year......like Monika, I just leave them in the ground until needed....although I might dig half a dozen out in one go, if the weather looks as if it might be frozen solid, or heavy snow.

Mine are still growing, big plants, but I can't see much of a root ball forming yet

Keep on feeding them, tigerburnie, and don't forget to take off the outer leaves as they age.

I'm unsure how many "outer" leaves one is supposed to remove. Do you almost but not quite strip them fairly bare?

Dear Primrose, once the celeriac starts swelling, it splits the stems of the very outer leaves and these then bend downwards....it is these leaves that I take off.

Yes, I wait until the leaves turn colour because then they usually come off quite easily. If they are still fully green, they are still doing their job helping to swell the celeriac and they are also much more difficult to remove.
I gave mine another dose of liquid Growmore today.