! 82 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
July, 1917 
Some Tricks of the Trade to In- 
crease Garden Yields. 
'(By Prof. J. G. Moore.) 
Practically every gardener has 
a few special practices or tricks of 
the trade that he uses to get earl- 
ier or a better produce, or to econ- 
omize space or labor. Many of 
these practices are fitted only for 
local situations, but a few have a 
universal application. 
The celery crop offers perhaps 
wider opportunities to test the 
gardener’s skill than any other 
vegetable crop. The practices 
connected with starting the 
plants, setting them in the gar- 
den, cultivating, and blanching 
the crop vary a great deal. 
There are two types of celery in 
general cultivation, the green 
type and the self-blanching. 
Giant Pascal and Winter Queen 
are examples of the former, and 
White Plume and Golden Self- 
Blanching of the latter. The 
green types have more green col- 
oring matter in the leaf stalks 
and are harder to blanch than 
the self-blanching varieties. How- 
ever, the green types are of much 
higher quality, they keep much 
better, and are more vigorous in 
growth and resistant to disease. 
They are preferred for storing. 
HANDLING EARLY AND LATE CELERY. 
The early crop is started under 
glass during the latter part of 
March and transplanted. It will 
take six or seven weeks from sow- 
ing for the plants to reach trans- 
planting size. Celery planted on 
or before May 15th is ready to 
harvest by the middle of August. 
The late crop is started from seed 
sown outdoors about the middle 
of May and is transplanted to the 
field around the first of July. 
Planting distances for celery 
vary from as close as 6 in. x 6 in. 
with the new celery culture to 
6 in. x 48 in. A good distance for 
the home garden is 6 in. x 24 in. 
This gives room enough for culti- 
vation and yet utilizes the ground. 
The new celery culture can only 
be used where the soil is very 
rich and where plenty of moisutre 
is available. Very little blanch- 
ing is necessary where this meth- 
od is used, as the shade of the 
leaves blanches the stalks. 
TRENCH METHOD LOSES POPULARITY. 
The old fashioned method of 
planting celery is to set it in 
trenches six or eight inches deep. 
While the celery can be blanched 
very easily with soil when set in 
trenches, the method has, in re- 
cent years, been largely dis- 
carded. The disadvantages of 
this method are that the celery is 
hard to cultivate, heavy rains 
wash the trenches full of soil, the 
extra labor of digging the trench, 
and unless we have a very deep 
soil, we are likely to set the 
plants either in the subsoil or 
very close to it. 
If there are no facilities for ir- 
rigation, the best crop insur- 
ance for celery is mulching the 
ground when the celery is six or 
eight inches high. Well rotted 
horse manure forms the best 
mulching material, but straw, 
leaves, or marsh hay may be used. 
The mulch should be put on to a 
depth of three or four inches. 
After the mulch is put on, further 
cultivation is unnecessary. It 
conserves moisture better than 
cultivation and keeps the soil 
cool, loose, and moist, a condition 
which is very favorable to the 
growth of celery. 
WHEN AND HOW TO BLEACH CELERY. 
In blanching celery, the aim is 
to get rid of the green color of 
the stalks. Anything which 
shuts off the light while the cel- 
ery is growing accomplishes this 
purpose. The method of blanch- 
ing depends upon a number of 
factors, chief among which are 
(1) the season of the year (cel- 
ery will rust badly if blanched 
with soil during the warmer 
months) (2) the variety (the self- 
blanching types can be blanched 
far more easily than the green 
types) (3) thickness of planting 
(when celery is planted as elose 
as 6 x 6 or 6 x 8, the thick foliage 
will blanch the stems) (4) the 
use to which the celery is put (if 
wanted for storing, the celery 
may be blanched in storage). 
SOIL BLEACHING IN PALL B^ST. 
Blanching the celery with soil 
is perhaps the most common way. 
It should only be done in the fall, 
when the days are cool. In 
blanching with earth, the plants 
are first “handled.” That is, 
soil is pressed around the base 
of the plant so as to make it grow 
upright. Soil is then tilled up 
around the plant to within three 
or four inches of the top. Blanch- 
ing celery with earth gives it a 
better flavor than blanching with 
paper and also protects it from 
frost. 
The simplest way to blanch 
celery in the home garden is to 
wrap the individual plants with 
brown paper. The paper should 
cover all but the leaves and be 
wrapped tightly around the 
plant. Drain tile, boards, and 
paper bands are also used. 
Keep the orchard and fruit 
plantation cultivated clean. 
