Celeriac again

[JD]

Hi there,
How tall does celeriac grow? I’ve never grown it before and I’m wondering if it’s spurt of growth since the recent hot weather (34 here and no doubt even hotter under insect netting) is because it’s bolting, or just normal. I’m trying to keep it well watered, but have a sandy soil. They’re all about 35 cm tall. If bolting, is it usable?
Thank you
Jan

[Cleansweep]

Dont panic-yet!
Are there signs that the plants are forming a seed head?, ie a single central stem.
Expect a good crop to get to maybe 50cm, on a ‘football’ of perhaps 25cm. Bolted ones are of little use, except you can use them for flavour in soup perhaps, discarding the wood by straining. Of course, the foliage can also be used if appertising, for the same purpose. Extra mulch may help.
Cleansweep

[JD]

Thank you Cleansweep. That’s reassuring. Took some photos earlier but before I saw your reply so didn’t specifically look for central stem. One thing I did notice is that the outer leaves are splitting at the base. Is this how it normally grows? Sorry, only pictures I’ve seen of it seem to be of large bulb and small tuft of leaves so nothing to compare to.
Jan

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[Gwynleg]

Hi JD, they look very good to me. It is normal for the lower leaves to split like that and generally they flop down eventually. Lots of information online says to remove the lower leaves to help the celeriac bulb to bulk up. Not sure if this works or not- Ive only grown it a few times and the conditions have been so different, weather wise. I did seem to get bigger bulbs when I pulled the lower leaves off though. Maybe I should experiment with half my crop and see what happens….

[JD]

Thanks guys. I’ll give it a go.
Jan

[Cleansweep]

Looks fine to me, certainly would clean up the aged leaves, as a general point I try to do it to all crops, to allow no hiding place for slugs or voles. Also boosts the volume for composting…

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