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Easily Re-Growing Celery Tops: Stop Trashing Your Scraps

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Easily Re-Growing Celery Tops: Stop Trashing Your Scraps. starting celery in shallow containers of water

Don’t toss out that ‘unusable’ celery base! Who knew re-growing celery could be done or that it was so much fun?

I have 4 beginning to grow in the garden already and just cut two more. Now, every time we buy celery, I ‘save’ the cut-off bottom portion.

 

Easily Re-Growing Celery Tops: Stop Trashing Your Scraps. cutting bottom off of celery

I did my first cutting in January, put the base into a 1/8″ of water and watched it grow.

And grow it did (3″) until all the outside stalks – which was its food source – started to rot. Since the garden wasn’t ready, I ended up tossing them.

I should have put them into some soil. Planting them in dirt allows the roots to develop. They really need more than water alone can give them.

With all the spring-like warmth in late March, I started again and planted them out in the garden soil 3 days later.

 

Celery’s Cool Personality

  • Celery is a cool weather crop, so you can place these ‘starts’ out as soon as the soil can be worked
  • Plants will withstand light frost, but 10 days with nights below 40 and days below 55° F can cause bolting
  • Plants are shallow-rooted and require consistent moisture… lack of water will make the stalks fibrous and bitter
  • Celery can tolerate heavy, poorly-drained soils because it was originally a bog plant
  • Normally it takes 16 weeks to grow what you see in the store ~ hey, that’s 4 months
 

Re-Growing Celery

When you cut off the bottom 3″ of the base, it is best to sit it in water right then and not let it dry out. Usually, I am cooking and don’t have time to go out to plant something. I think it gets a better start in the water (for up to a week) before setting it out…little roots will start to develop.

Easily Re-Growing Celery Tops: Stop Trashing Your Scraps. planting celery out into the garden

I use a lot of celery in our cooking, and maybe I can save some on our food bill by re-growing celery through the spring and summer and have fun doing it! I have never grown celery before, so I am looking forward to trying it.

Side note: after 3-4 weeks, the celery base slowly decomposes, and the plant gets its energy from it to grow the tops. It does not smell. I do keep it in at least an half inch of water and often use old tea to add nutrients to the water.

Do not let it ever dry out completely.

Celery is really a bog plant and will also need lots of water in the garden.

 

Re-Growing to Plant It Outside

If and when you do finally plant it in your garden, celery likes very fertile and WET soil, so it will appreciate help from your compost pile or fish emulsion, etc.

Tomorrow I’m going to top the soil up to the cut edges and add compost. Something in me is wanting to cover up the icky, decomposing bases.

As they decompose under the soil, they will add to the healthy fertility of the soil.

planting celery out into the garden

I am hoping to be able to cut off a stalk or two at a time (yeah, they will be shorter) and let the main bunch continue to grow.

Oh, I forgot! I also grow fabulous green onions and re-root basil right on the kitchen windowsill.

 

Now I’m starting a head of Romaine!

Have you ever tried this?

Romaine lettuce from stalk cuttings

 “Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.”  ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Potpourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897

“For as the soil makes the sprout come up 
   and a garden causes seeds to grow, 
so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness 
   and praise spring up before all nations.” ~Isaiah 61: 11

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Easily Re-Growing Celery Tops: Stop Trashing Your Scraps. starting celery in shallow containers of water

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Thanks for reading!

Jacqueline
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Comments

  6. I have two of these growing in little pots in my kitchen. I’m ready to put them out today after reading here that they are a cold weather plant! Thanks!

    Oh, and excited to try this with leeks too like Amanda posted!

    • I had no ides you could do this.My little celery end has been in a saucer of water three days and is sprouting new growth..!!!! Thank you for helping me know what to do next.How exciting……!!!!

  7. Jackie!!! that is wonderful! We love and use a ton of Romaine. I’m going to try that now! I will also try the celery. Isn’t gardening so neat! I love how the Lord has “put it into” the plants, how to propagate themselves via seeds, cuttings, tubers…amazing…He is so good to us! Thanks so much for sharing!

  9. This is awesome Jacqueline! My husband and I use celery in our juicing and he likes to snack on it (I’m working on like it more LOL!). This would definitely save grocery money if we could plant and harvest our own. I wonder if I could buy a head of spinach leaves and also have planting success there (as you have with your romaine heads)? Hmm…great post, thanks! -Nicole @ Working Kansas Homemaker

  10. Jackie, I just had a thought…would the celery grow yet again if you just cut the celery from the base and left the base in the dirt? Being a cool weather plant, maybe setting it in a cool room near a window or planting it in the shade outside…An experiment to try! 😀

  14. From the “dead” springs forth life! This is fascinating, really fascinating.

    Isa 61:11 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,
    So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
    To spring up before all the nations.

    • Sheri, I love that Scripture! I put it in the ending of the post…thank you so much for helping me. The Word is so applicable to all of life.

  16. I can’t wait to try this… I wonder what will happen to it in the Texas summer. I guess I’ll see how it likes the indoors!

    • Fall and winter are the time to grow cool weather crops in Texas. It’s also much more enjoyable to work outside at that time. I live in south Texas. The cool weather growing season here is long for light frost tolerant plants and with a little preparation even a heavier freeze can be managed so the crops keep going through the spring. God has truly blessed Texas! Enjoy!

    • Kendra, thank you for that comment on pesticides. Yes, celery is heavily sprayed. We read that years ago, so have avoided conventional for a while. TY for reminding me why we are trying to grow our own 🙂

    • Organic celery is cheap. Start with a few of those, and you will be able to keep it going. We have been doing this for years. Even got my son’s teachers involved.

      • I am getting started with some here in the house again once Christmas and New Years are over! Thanks for the timely reminder, Val!

  19. This is fascinating! I didn’t know you could “re-grow” celery. Amazing! Love the photography! I’m quite nuts about gardening and love when tips are combined with photos!

    Thanks again for linking up!

  20. My daughter, Bridgett has gotten me hooked on celery and hummus. I am going to tell her today about the idea of growing it from the bottoms. We live in Alabama and I have a sunroom and I am thinking that perhaps I need to plant it in a pot and let it stay inside with all my succulents. They do get a good dose of sun.

    • Sherree, I love the idea of growing it inside in a sun-room 🙂 That will be a year-round conversation starter!

  21. Carolyn writes via email:
    Thank you so much for sharing this – this is exciting to me! We found celery plants at a nursery several years ago and for years planted and grew it. It was wonderful. It was just as you mentioned – go out and get as many stalks as needed, leaving the plant to grow. For last few years, we have not been able to find the starter plants anywhere. I tried growing it from seed, but they did not do well. So this is the perfect solution.
    Thank you and bless you, Jacqueline,
    Carolyn

  23. This is such a great post. I had a friend give me a bunch of starts last year, but with limited space I am not prepared to do a bunch of starts that way. However, I think I can manage this!

  24. I just planted my first garden. I am so enjoying seeing greens sprout from seed, and squashes burst through the dirt. I am sprouting zinnias in my kitchen in eggshells. My tomatoes are growing beautifully. I even have a fun pot that has strawberry plants popping out of it’s sides.

    Today we saw a rabbit hopping through our yard. It might explain my chewed on collard leaves. 🙂 How do you keep them away??

    I will for sure try the celery and romaine root growing. Thanks for sharing.

    I never thought that gardening would be so much fun. It always looked like so much work. I am finding out that it is so rewarding to see the fruit of all that planting. 🙂

    • Tereza,
      I agree heartily with you! It gives wings to our creative juices and an outlet for the beauty we hope to accomplish! God’s green earth sings out loud in the Spring!
      As to rabbits,,,we have a completely fenced garden 🙂 Otherwise, I don’t know what I’d do! OH! You can use a mixture of cayenne, Dawn dish soap, and one other thing! HHmmm…I will have to look it up. Spray it on with a pistol grip. It won’t hurt the plants.

  25. I tried this once and only got a stalk of a few inches. But I was doing it in the summer and thought when the base rotted it was done.
    I really appreciate this post. I know more now than I did before! :o)
    Have a wonderful day!

  26. I have done this, too! My first attempt shot out pretty well. I left it in water for 2-3 days then planted it. BUT…it seems to have gotten *stuck*. I think I will bury the decomposing base and see if that helps it out. I have about 2 inch fresh growth, so hopefully giving it a little help will make it continue to grow.

    • Amy, One thought on the getting ‘stuck’~ something I read mentioned it took 16 weeks for celery production. I wonder if it just grows very slowly. One thing I also will do is mulch it heavily since it needs so much water, then water it very often. I’m still experimenting as you can probably tell!

  29. Jacqueline,

    What a great tip! I actually have the bottom of a celery in the fridge right now! I believe I will give this a try. I wonder if there will be enough time this late in the season, but it’s worth a try!

  30. I am keeping this and will start growing celery this winter in the house. We have a room that is not heated, so it should stay around 40. Thank you.

    • You are welcome, Debbie.
      I will be posting on saving celery seed in just the near future! Mine produced fairly well until it got over 100 degrees, then it just went to head (seed). Now to save some for cooking 🙂

  31. I do this with green onions! I am excited to try it with celery. I have a lettuce stump I am trying this with already.

    I got tired of my green onions getting all slimy in the fridge, so I started putting them in a glass with a little water in the bottom in my kitchen window. The outer part will get dry before I use them all, but that is better than slimy. They keep growing and perpetuate themselves so I almost always have green onions. When I cut them down almost to the root, I put the root in the garden and they grow. This is great, because I could never get them to grow from seed.

    • Ceseme,
      Hello, again!
      I will be trying green onions from the store soon. I hope I have your success :-))
      I also appreciate your idea about the trench. That might be enough to keep them tender and less strong tasting. I can’t wait to try adding some sand, too.

  32. One thing else I thought I would share: If you don’t like a heavy strong taste, you can dig a trench in your garden and put the celery in the bottom and fill the trench as the celery grows. (I think they use sand commercially.) This prevents the celery from getting dark green, and it is called blanching because it results in the celery looking pale. I haven’t actually tried this myself, but I read up on this kind of stuff a lot so I can know how to do it. (That’s how I found your site, which I am quickly getting addicted to!) Now I can actually try! I think I will have faster results using a stump than I would trying to grow it from seed.

    • You must live where it is warmer already…I can’t wait !! God bless your family and garden ~~

  34. Now that spring is around the corner, I am saving my first celery bottom today! I just cut it this morning when putting my husband’s lunch together and to come look your post back up to remember exactly what to do with it =) I hope you are doing well, thanks for all the inspiration!

  35. Hi. I Googled “home grown celery” and was lucky enough to find you. A dear friend of mine posted on my facebook page about growing celery from the cut stalk. I just did it for the first time and am very excited to see what happens. I live in Eastern Connecticut and right now we are having a snow storm, so the gardens won’t be ready for a while. I’m hoping I can put the celery in a pot of dirt after a week in the dish of water and grow it in the house until the weather warms up.

    Thank you for this beautiful post, it was so helpful and gave me the confidence and knowledge I needed to try this little project.

    • Welcome Joanne! I have heard about your snow storm…having a bit of green on your windowsill will hopefully make it cheery enough until spring buds pop. I think we all are getting cabin fever!

  36. YOU CAN ALSO CUT OFF THE TOPS OF A PINEAPPLE THAT YOU BUY IN THE STORE, AND PLACE IT ONTO A POT OF PLANT SOIL AND IN TWO YEARS YOU WILL HAVE YOUR OWN PINEAPPLE. THEY SPREAD OUT SOME IF YOU PLANT THEM IN A FLOWER BED, AND GET ABOUT 18-24 INCHES TALL, BUT THEY MAKE A NICE LOW PLANT BED.

  37. Hello: just googled you for “celery roots” for a GAPS dieter. Her son loves hash brown celery root potatoes. When you grow these bottoms do you end up with a big celery root? If yes, have you used them for cooking? It would be great if you can grow celery greens and then use the roots too!

    Thanks.

    • Hello, Vicki!
      I wish I could say ‘Yes’ to your question. My celery got 8″-10″ tall and was mostly leafy stalks due to less water than they needed. I will be using a drip hose this year to keep the soil moist. I can’t emphasize how much water they need to really produce like farmed celery 🙂 I will look to see if there is a ball this year, as I too LOVE celery root! It may be that there is, but I didn’t look. I let them go to seed and got quite a bit (Yay!), but put mulch on top of what I didn’t harvest (to rot like compost over the winter). Good luck!

  38. I remember as a kid I would help my mom with the garden. But then as an adult I had lived in apartments where we really did not have room for a garden until a couple years ago. So now that I have a yard, I have been getting back into gardening (tho I do not remember much of what I learned when I was young as it was quite some time ago.) I think it is good for my daughters to learn about the plants as well. Plus my youngest gets so excited to eat veggies that she helped to grow!

    I haven’t tried celery yet, but definitely will be soon – probably next year now tho since it will be getting warm here now. I have used garlic cloves from the store and was able to grow garlic from them. I am not the best garlic grower yet, but it worked 🙂

    Thank you for sharing this and I will be trying celery soon!

  39. Awesome article!

    I have been gardening for the past three years only as I too lived in the city for a long time. Bought organic, but now that I have a little community garden spot I make the best of it. I do this with carrots, celery, sweet potatoes and now trying it with red onions(wish me luck 😉 . By the way, my ginger isn’t really sprouting. Do you have any tips for growing ginger in water with the toothpicks?
    Ohh how I wish I would have found this article before regarding the fungus in seedlings. I lost a bunch of “Creole potatoes” usually grown in South America but are delicious to fungi. Glad to know I can use natural products to fight it.

    I also noticed that you practically didn’t bury the celery root (you mentioned let the old stuff rot as compost) I put dirt all over it and left just what is growing showing. Would that suffocate it?

    Thanks for the tips- bookmarked 🙂

    • Astrid,
      I think the celery will be fine, just keep it really moist! I’d love to hear how it does for you!!

  40. Came across your site while looking up (how to grow celery) and I’ve been sitting here reading and listening to your music thingy with my headphones. It’s been a great blessing to me this afternoon. This instrumental music is so soothing to the soul and brings tears to my eyes when I come across a familiar song or hymn. I love the Lord so so very much, He has changed me from the inside out and replaced my heart of stone with a heart of flesh, one that is so grateful for His love for me that He would send His Son to give up His life so that I could have life and have it more abundantly. Thank you for your site and for your life in Christ Jesus, may He continue to bless you as you bless others with your words of encouragement. I am a Canadian recording artist and I would like to bless you with the prayer from Ephesians 3:14 which I quote before the old hymn Here is Love on my latest CD.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Q4gkWKLL8

    Now I am off to plant my celery! All because of celery I received this wonderful blessing to day. AH! God is so good!

    • Brenda,
      I am in awe of the love and kindness of our Lord Jesus! Thank you, new friend, for this wonderful hymn, and I am so glad you have been blessed!! I have loved Here Is Love from the first time I had one of my children play it for me. May your celery thrive!

  41. I have tried this three times and the celery base rots after a week in the pot. I can’t seem to find a solution even after reading a bunch of posts. I have to bases in water at the moment, but I am afraid of it failing again. I would appreciate any recommendations you can give me

    • Carol,
      I have had that happen twice, too, but on the other hand, 5 bases have been able to be planted in the garden. While the outside stumpy stalks rot, the inside sprouts new growth. I think maybe the rotting part provides some nutrient for the new growth. I wrote this post several years ago but have done it every year since with varying degrees of success. I have never gotten a typical bunch of celery like from the store, but I have gotten enough to season soups. It is more the leafy tops – 5-6″ max. They just need lots of water but drowning does cause rotting… I had tpo get mine into soil. Sun and air circulation seem to be very helpful. I guess bunches of celery like the stores offer will continue to be the domain of commercial growers 🙁
      I hope that helps! Have fun experimenting, friend.

  43. I have been trying to start these indoors for my garden but at a certain point the roots or stems soften and die. What am I doing wrong.

    • Christine, they will need more nutrients than water can provide at some point, so I try to plant them outside into soil at the first possible date. For very early starts, I have kept them protected with plastic milk jugs (cap on) and the bottom cut out. I take them off on warmer days so they get more sun. Ones I started later, I can safely plant outside without protection. Water well. I never got a REAL tall celery stalks, just about half tall, which I used! Also, the leaves can flavor a soup wonderfully!
      It is an experiment, but a fun one. Works really well with onions!!

  44. I tried this and it worked great for about 3 week, then the stalk jus wilted away. What did I do wrong? I was so excited watching it grow.

    • Hi, Donna! I have had not much success with it either, unless it is spring and I stick it in the garden with drip irrigation or watering very frequently. Celery is so touchy, but I do love having the tops for cooking! Some dishes just sing with added celery tops 😀

      And it is so pretty seeing something green on the windowsill!

  45. I have the celery growing in water now and I swear you can see it grow more daily. I am in FL so it’s very hot here. I wasn’t sure if I should keep this in the bowl with water or put it in soil. I am going to try putting it in a pot of soil and keeping it on my screen porch and see what happens. I am going to try the lettuce and scallions also. What fun

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