How to Grow NEW Celery from Old Celery!
From Elyse (Former MRASP Hut Teacher)
Grades K- 5 Here’s what you will need: 1 full celery stalk
1 bowl of water
1 large clear plastic cup OR a well drained pot
Soil or dirt. (Optional gravel)
Hi MRASP-ers! Some of you may remember me, I used to work at the Hut. I live in Minnesota, now and my son and I have really enjoyed growing celery from our grocery store stalks and I figured I would share that project with all of you!
Did you know you can grow new celery right from the celery you buy at the grocery store?
It’s easy and super fun!
Step One: Slice your celery stalk about two inches away from the base.
Step Two: Make some ants on a log (YUMMM) *Raisins and Peanut/Sun-nut/other kind of nut/"nut" butter Step Three: Take the two inch base and put it in a cup or bowl of water in leave in your windowsill.
Step Four: Observe with amazement when only a day or two later new celery sprigs start to spring from the center of stalk!
Step Five: When the new growth reaches about an inch and half tall it’s time to transfer your celery plant to a pot or cup with some soil.
Celery needs a lot of water to thrive, but also needs sufficient drainage to keep it’s roots from rotting.
You can either plant it in a pot with a lot of holes in the bottom of it and water it from the top. Or you can try and recreate my crazy contraption featured below and water it from the bottom up:
We’ve grown many a new celery plant in our house and our biggest problem once it gets past the cup full of water phase is to strike the perfect balance between enough water and not letting the roots rot. The photo above is my irrigation contraption. I water the rocks via the straw up to the green line and the plant absorbs the water when it needs it. Though maybe some of you with greener thumbs will have fewer issues with it just in a plain old pot! Happy planting! Elyse
