2 things......

chadspad · Post: # 66098Post **chadspad** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:22 am

I am growing celery which is doing well but the stalks arent fattening up - do I need to heap the soil up around it?

and

We have mole crickets that have eaten our pots (little bugg*rs!!). If I planted parnsips there would they eat those too or do they only like pots?

Millymollymandy · Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:10 pm

Pots or potatoes? I think I've seen photos of those mole crickets in a gardening magazine - scary looking creatures. I hope they didn't eat terracotta or plastic pots.

I think celery gets blanched, but with newspaper or something like that tied up around it to stop the earth getting in all the nooks and crannies. It's something I'd like to try growing one of these years!

ina · Post: # 66134Post **ina** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:16 pm

Celery - there are two types: self blanching and the other one... I've got some of the self blanching, but I'm growing them for the first time, so no idea how well they'll do! The others are a bit fiddly; I think you have to plant them in trenches.

chadspad · Post: # 66136Post **chadspad** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:54 pm

Yes potatoes M3 - gosh the crickets are big, ugly things as it is but the thought of them tucking into a clay pot is the thing of nightmares lol.

Ina - knowing my luck Ive probably got the non self-blanching stuff! Its grown brilliant and is quite tall (plus theres tons of it!) but its not fattening. Ive done a few searches but only found 1 site that said to heap up with soil. I have a spare bag of cheap compost which is more like wood chips perhaps if I cover them with that then it will be easier to clean afterwards and lots of mud wont get caught in the stalks.

Willow · Post: # 66172Post **Willow** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:08 pm

You can blanch celery with soil, wrap with newspaper or slip a short length of clay pipe over the plant. All you are doing is excluding light from the stems so they have to grow larger and upward to get to the sunlight.
Personaly I prefer my celery green and small. It tastes so much better than the thick, white, stringy stuff.

chadspad · Post: # 66190Post **chadspad** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:30 am

Thanks for that Willow. I will do half covered and half not then and see which I prefer too.

Millymollymandy · Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:29 pm

Just a thought - did you buy the seed in France? We don't seem to have the white blanched stuff in the shops do we? It's always really long green stuff (and often very unpleasant too

). So maybe it is supposed to be like that!

chadspad · Post: # 66369Post **chadspad** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:00 am

Yes it is from France M3 so u could be right! Will cover some and see if it makes a difference

Biscombe · Post: # 66447Post **Biscombe** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:28 am

mole crickets !!! I hate em!!!! When the spuds get eaten and the bugg**s eat the roots of healthy plants Its like paying taxes isnt it??!!!!! trying to get hold of some bio control, but Spain hasn't caught on to this yet!

ohareward · Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:06 pm

This was on Wikipedia- mole crickets

Luckily, there are numerous ways of getting rid of them, and nature helps considerably, for the mother herself frequently eats large numbers of her children. Their sense of smell is very acute, and it has been found a good plan to bury a dead crab in the ground infested by them, or pour water with a little oil or turpentine down their burrows, when those not killed will at once vacate.

Robin