What Season Are Celery Vegetables? Including Soilless Cultivation Techniques

Celery is a common vegetable variety in our daily lives. It can be used for stir-frying, making fillings, and more, and is deeply loved by consumers. Celery is one of the vegetables with a very high fiber content, and has effects such as lubricating the intestines and lowering blood pressure. Celery is cultivated in many places across China, mainly including Western celery, water celery, and dryland celery, which differ in appearance and taste. Let us take a look below at what season celery is a vegetable of? Including soilless cultivation techniques.

I. What season is celery a vegetable of?

Celery is mainly sown in autumn, generally sown evenly from early July all the way to October. Guangzhou has warm winters, so sowing can continue until December. Early-sown celery begins to be harvested from September to October, while late-sown celery can be harvested until March to April of the following year, that is, before bolting. For spring cultivation, the suitable sowing period in the Yangtze River Basin is March; sowing too early tends to cause premature bolting.

II. Soilless Cultivation Techniques for Celery

Celery has a shallow and sparse root system. Celery prefers a cool and moist environment. The optimum temperature for germination is 15-20°C. At high temperatures, germination is slow and uneven, but the seedling stage is tolerant of high temperatures, and seedlings can also endure low temperatures of -7°C. Celery requires low temperatures to pass through the vernalization stage, and passes through the photoperiod stage under long-day conditions to bolt and flower.

(I) Soilless Cultivation Methods for Celery

Celery can be cultivated using NFT, DFT, rockwool cultivation, or other substrate cultivation methods. There are not many reports in China on soilless cultivation of celery. According to the “Research on Rockwool Soilless Cultivation Techniques for Celery” conducted by relevant experts, using ground troughs with rockwool to cultivate celery not only has low cost and good results, but is also suitable for conditions in China and easy to promote and apply in production. The method is: level the ground, compact the soil layer, and make a trough body about 20cm deep, 60-100cm wide, and about 10m long. The trough runs north-south, with a slope of 1:70 and a trough spacing of 30cm. Line it with a layer of 0.1mm thick polyethylene film, and fill it with substrates such as rockwool, vermiculite, or river sand. After the seedlings are established, plant them at a spacing of 10cm between plants and rows (for Western celery, the spacing is 20cm×30cm), planting one seedling per hole, with 40,000-50,000 plants per planting. Supply nutrient solution promptly after planting; generally no seedling recovery period is needed.

(II) Soilless Cultivation Management for Celery

1. Nutrient Solution Formula

First, the screened specialized celery nutrient solution formula (Table 1) has good cultivation results, with an EC value of 1.75ms/cm and pH adjusted to 6.0-6.5; second, use only compound fertilizer (15:15:15 phosphorus-potassium ammonium nitrate) at 1000mg/L. The EC value is 1.7ms/cm, and the pH is adjusted to 6.0-6.5.

2. Management After Planting

(1) Temperature Management

Celery is a cool-loving vegetable, so controlling temperature well to meet the needs of celery is very important.

Generally speaking, the seedling stage has a strong adaptability to temperature, while during the product formation stage, the temperature requirements are relatively strict. Generally, the suitable daytime air temperature should be maintained at 18-25°C, and at night at 12-15°C. The nutrient solution temperature should be 18-20°C. If the root zone temperature is below 15°C for a long time, it is unfavorable for growth.

(2) Nutrient Solution Management

During different growth stages of celery, the amount and frequency of nutrient solution supply should not be the same. During the vigorous growth period, supply nutrient solution 2-3 times per day (drip irrigation or pouring), and it can be appropriately reduced in the early and late stages. If the nutrient solution is not recycled, clean water should be poured once every few days.