Celeriac which refuses to root up.....help!!

[Potter's Farm]

I am having prolems with my celeriac, about half of the plants i've got have set flowers. I dug a couple up of the flowering ones today and found that they have no swollen root at all. I have been pulling away the lower leaves as the plants grow as this is supposed to encourage root development.

The non-flowering plants are rooting up ok ish but not as large as i'd like.

Anyone have any ideas as to what i'm doing wrong??

Thanks, Lisa.

[Gra]

Don't worry too much because celeriac only really starts to bulk up in autumn. However it does need lots of water whilst growing and the fact that many ran to seed indicates it may have been too dry. Also I wouldn't start removing leaves until around now, slowly taking more off until they are ready after Xmas.

[Millymollymandy]

Don't know the first thing about growing this veg but Monty Don was taking off some of the leaves and watering them on GW the other night. His tuber/root (what is it called?!) was not very big but he remarked that it had been bone dry there in Herefordshire all August (find that hard to believe!!! ) so he was starting to water in order to swell up the root.

[Peggy Sue]

I grow celeriac, they do like a bit of compost in teh soil unlike carrots, parsnips etc, the roots are about the size of golfballs at the moment but they should grow more (I manage to get tennis ball size but not much more).
Mine have never flowered- that does sound like bolting due to lack of water (few few of my salsify have this year which I have not seen before). I would make sure they are well watered now to make sure the others don't bolt.
Hope you manage to get them going, such a lovely winter veg mashed, roasted, boiled, in stews. Good stuff!

[Christine]

I grew celeriac for the first time last year but delayed planting them out until I had a bit of space. The roots appeared - from the surface - to be large enough to pull in November, but it was all on the surface and no depth to the root at all. I used the leaves instead of celery in winter stews and they were delicious. Under the snow, the remainder of the celeriac produced largish roots - but they were completely eaten out and rotten by the time I could get to them. This year, I made sure to get them out earlier and I hope to have better results.

[Slippery Jack]

I fear that I planted mine out before they were ready. The seedlings are really tiny and a dry spell, combined with me not keeping them, moist enough did for the lot. Next year, I'll plant them out later.

[Potter's Farm]

Thanks guys. I saw Monty Don too, the day after I posted on here.....maybe he read my post?!! I thought the flowering was due to poor watering, I have a 2nd sowing that are smaller but not flowering, I'll keep on top of the water and let you know how it goes