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Specifics of growing transplants of celery, cauliflower, swede, and beet

For gardeners

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GREENHOUSES AND COVERS G
  • Celery growing period — 60–75 days
  • Temperature for celery — 15–18 °C
  • Cauliflower growing period — 35–45 days
  • Rutabaga growing period — 30–45 days
  • Beet growing period — 30–40 days

Celery germinates slowly, so it takes 60 to 75 days to prepare transplants. If a greenhouse is available, it is most efficient to use the box-growing method followed by transplant pricking.

  1. Sow celery seed in individual boxes and place them in a greenhouse.
  2. Stack the boxes on top of each other to save space until emergence.
  3. Move the boxes closer to the light immediately after the first shoots appear.
  4. Prick the seedlings into warm hotbeds 25–30 days after emergence, maintaining a distance of 3–4 cm between rows.

If there is no heated greenhouse, sow celery seed directly into warm hotbeds as early as possible. To do this, prepare a light soil with added humus and sand, 14–15 cm deep. Optimal plant care includes regular ventilation, irrigation as needed, weed control, and maintaining the air temperature within 15–18 °C. Transplants ready for planting should be 12–15 cm tall and have 4–5 developed leaves.

In the first 2–3 days after emergence of celery, as well as immediately after pricking, be sure to shade the hotbeds with mats. This will protect the fragile plants from sunburn and reduce excessive moisture loss from the leaves due to transpiration.

Growing transplants of cauliflower takes from 35 to 45 days. To harvest the crop in the open field in waves at different times, practice sowing in several stages. Sow the first batch in warm hotbeds from March 25 to April 1, and subsequent ones at 15–20 day intervals in cold hotbeds or nurseries. Otherwise, the technology of growing cauliflower transplants">technology of growing transplants of cauliflower is identical to the crop management of white cabbage.

When using peat pots, sow cauliflower 5–10 days earlier than usual. Such transplants are planted in the field at a more mature age — on the 55th–65th day from the moment of sowing.

Crop management of rutabaga, beet, and forced crop transplants

Rutabaga transplants are grown in cold hotbeds, nurseries, or directly in the open soil on manured beds. The care technology is similar to growing transplants of mid-season cabbage cultivars. Beet sowing in hotbeds and nurseries is carried out from April 25 to May 1. Care for beets consists of irrigation, weeding, and thinning of seedlings. The application rates for seed sowing and projected transplant yield for both crops are shown in the table.

Crop and growing method Seed application rate Distance between rows Yield of ready transplants
Celery (broadcast sowing under a warm hotbed frame) 4–5 g per frame — up to 1500 pcs per frame
Celery (without pricking, row sowing under a frame) 1.6 g per frame 5 cm up to 1500 pcs per frame
Rutabaga (row sowing in cold hotbeds, nurseries, beds) 4 g per 1 m² 6 cm up to 600 pcs per 1 m²
Beet (row sowing in hotbeds and nurseries) 30 g per 1 m² (or 50 g per frame) 5–6 cm 500 pcs per 1 m² (or 800 pcs per frame)

A separate group consists of forcing crops, the greens of which are obtained in hotbeds and greenhouses by planting ready-made storage organs — roots, root crops, bulbs, and rhizomes. These include:

  • green onions;
  • parsley;
  • celery;
  • sorrel for greens.

Their crop management is generally the same, and the technological differences in growing are minimal.

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