Celery...Ins and outs

[Ruler of the Roost]

Hello again,
I am just starting out gardening and no one I know has ever grown celery. However, Celery is a main course in my diet. I put it in almost everything, and I love mirepoix, even by itself. The more I grow my own food the closer to vegetarian I get. So this is the system I am currently working with...I Grow my stalks from cuttings, first by dangling the butt end of the cutting in water until I get leaves and a reasonably long. Once I accomplish that, I transfer it into a small pot until I get roots handing out of the bottom hole, then I transfer it to a much larger pot, usually made from a gallon water container that I cut, spray painted and drilled holes in on top of a dinner plate. I have a creamer pitcher that I fill with water and give each of the mid level to larger plants once a day. I recently started fertilizing all stages with unused black tea packets and that seems to be going well. (I'm broker than broke right now and just trying to get by until I can do things a little more on the legit side.) anyways, any advice on celery, such as how much or how often to water, better ways to fertilize, etc would be great. Once I get a hang on celery I have a design in my head for some hydroponic set ups for it.

 

[Tetters]

This will be a thread I keep my eye on, that's for sure. Hopefully an expert on the subject will pop in and visit us, but until then, the way you are planning this maybe it's the very best way to learn.
If you can post pictures of your experiments and progress @Ruler of the Roost , it would be even more helpful.
I understand from trying to research this subject, that these plants need a lot of feeding, and it is important to make sure it grows quickly, or ese it becomes unusual.
It was also very interesting to me to read @Anniekay 's message about Chinese celery, which might be an easier way to get the best results, especially in a hot climate.
As a PS if I am ever in doubt about which fertiliser to use, I always reach for slow release Osmocote as a first choice. I believe that potassium is what celery needs more than any other feed ???

 

[Zigs]

I'm giving Celery a go this spring, only grown the self blanching one before.

 

[Anniekay]

I had to look up mirepoix. It sounds delicious !! Carrots, onions, celery, YUM. I am going to try making that with my chinese celery ( if it ever gets big enough, that is ). !!

 

[Tetters]

I think from all I've read, that the western form of celery has its growing problems, and I'll leave that to Zigs, but I've sent for seeds of the big red celery which I'm hoping might be a bit easier. That is supposed to be quite sweet and reliable, as well as good raw or used in cooking. We shall see how that goes. I believe that bok choi is the same as the Chinese lettuce that Annie is growing, and I'm not quite so fond of that, but it is very passable.
It'll be good to compare notes.
As far as the mirepoix goes, I've been prepping the carrots and onions by dehydrating as it saves so much space, and I'm doing my best to lessen the amount of frozen stuff because we are expecting a lot of power outages.