i've grown celery. different climate than yours. it needs a lot of water. its not a big seller/profit maker. fun to experiment but any more than a small amount is too much.

Celery sold well for me this year, I wish I had grown more of it. I only brought 10 or so per market and sold out fast. I saw two women fight over the last celery once. I wasn't sure how it would do at market but will grow more next year. Mine was pesticide free, which was a big selling point. Conventional celery is often full of pesticides so it's something consumers are searching for as organic.

My celery was still on the small side in the september and october markets, it's really just getting to be a good size now, and my market ended last month. I may try starting in a low tunnel in spring.

The only problems I had with it were some caterpillars in summer, they weren't too bad but I may treat with BT or spinosad next year if I grow more celery. And I found a lot of grasshoppers in the celery.

Mdfarmer, what area of the country are you in, and temperatures for Oct?

I've had good luck with it too.First year I put about 15 out, this year a whole row of 90-100 plants. I have about 20 left because I got greedy and tried to have it last until our Thanksgiving market, but then the weather got too cold suddenly.
I plant it in the spring along with other crops in a partially shady area of my garden and then can cut it from late summer/through fall. It seems to do better here in Indiana with our hot dry summers if it gets afternoon shade and am full sun. It can take some frost, but we did get 18-23 degrees the other night and that was too much for it. it still looked fine but the stems were mealy instead of crunchy. It cooks ok still yet, but not for fresh eating.
I usually sell them for $2-3 each depending on size and bring some of each size to market. I grew utah 52-70, and another one that started with a T from ball seed, Tango maybe?
I tried the "giant red" this year, but it didn't grow as fast as I anticipated and it didn't get big enough to harvest for market by end of market. I planted it from transplants in July.
it does like a lot of water and you can crowd it somewhat with some fertilizer through the drip line. but it's a pretty slow grower in general.
We did also have some kind of a heart rot type fungus hit a couple of them towards the end of the row and I though they were dead, but by the time I got around to going out there to pull them up, they were growing back from the roots, so I just pulled the dead part off and they grew multiple smaller heads that we just sold in a bunch as baby celery. we had super wet weather there for a while though so i think that might have been the problem.
after you cut them, let them lay in the field for 30 minutes or so and let them wilt slightly, and then pick them up. they are very brittle and they're easier to pack up that way. those bigger plastic bags that newspapers come in, like the sunday paper, or bread bags, make really good sleeves for them, so have some saved. sleeve them while slightly wilted and pack them in a box and then put them in refrigeration and they crisp back up and look great for market. they dont have to go in a cooler then the next day if you keep the box in the shade and put out a few at a time.
also one more thing, you can cut off of it all summer and have celery for yourself to eat, just a stalk or two at a time which is very handy. We are selling more plants at the greenhouse every year because of that. I make sure to tell the customers that it works good that way.
and the last thing, when you go to cut them, pull up on the plants and loosen the roots some, cut them off right above the root, there's like a joining point there and you don't have to clean off the soil off the bottoms. then step on the root and firm it back in the hole and if it's early enough in the season you'll have regrowth, "baby celery" to sell later. sorry this is so long, but I really like growing celery now.

I'm located in Maryland, in zone 6a. I grew Utah Tall celery this year and put my transplants out in mid-May. I only grew maybe 50 plants total, but will grow more next year. I'll probably try a few different varieties next year, Tango or Calypso. I haven't seen red celery before, but see that Territorial sells one variety, Red Venture. I'm not sure how that would do at my markets, my customers are a bit conservative. It looks interesting tho, and I may try a few red plants next year.

It's been COLD here this fall, but my remaining celery is surviving under a row of heavyweight Agribon. Some of the stalks have frozen along the edges where they touch the Agribon, but overall it's doing very well, and it's now a very nice size, much bigger than when I sold it at the market in fall. I agree with Sandy0225 that celery is a very slow grower. I'm going to try to plant at least some celery under Agribon this spring so I can hopefully get decent sized plants while my markets are still open.

I did not blanch my celery so it's bright green and crunchier than celery at the grocery store. I like the taste, but I may try mulching at least some plants with straw next year to blanch and get more tender plants.

I think I sold my first celery at market for $1.50 or $2, but raised the price because I sold out quickly. I was at $2.50 or $3 by the end of the market. If my plants had been larger I would have charged more.

gama, we're in 8b South Mississippi. Started growing Tango three seasons ago. Absolutely love it. Our customers fight over it. Ours is cert organic and we sell for $3 each. We put it in in Sept and finish harvesting by June before it gets too hot. Your customers will appreciate, and be willing to pay for, the difference in taste between this and the shrink-wrapped garbage they get elsewhere.

PJFarm, do you blanch your celery with straw or paper, or do you leave it dark green?

It is green with all the leaves still on. Some of our military customers have commented that they purchase it like that in other countries, but have not seen it here.

Thanks everyone! PJFarmer, thanks for your posting, it really helps as far as timing since are zones are similar. I was worried that I planted too late, but should be okay for a spring crop. We've been getting a ton of rain Dothan should help a bit too.

I may have tO try this agin. Used to grow it but it would get hit with the yellows (fusarium) and would get really nasty and unsellable. But that was on our old farm that had soil issues and perhaps on this farm where we have been doing well with building soil fertility it would do much better.

There is some great information here! I grew celery for the first time this year. Compared to grocery store celery it was smaller and stringier, but the flavor was amazing. It didn't know what to sell it for and my fellow farmers at market that I asked didn't know either, so I just did $3, since my motto is, "When in doubt, charge $3" I am going to grow it again for market because the people who bought it from me came back a second and third week to buy more, which I consider the best sign! Later I saw a local, organic grower with gorgeous giant celery at market that put mine to shame, so I know I have a lot of room for improvement!

I actually prefer to sell my celery when it is smaller. I think it has so much more flavor and is not hard like the celery that you buy in the grocery store. I cut the stems and sell them in bunches.

I think "when in doubt charge $3" is a good motto.

Bagardens, do you cut individual stalks and bunch them together for sale, or do you cut whole plants? When my celery was small I'd bunch a few plants together for sale, and tried to make all bunches about equal in weight.

My price depends on big the bunch is, which depends on the time of the year. Early on I will pick the stems smaller and sell the bunch for around $1.00 to $1.50. Later in the year I think I may have upped the price to around $2.00. You are making me wonder if I am selling it too cheap. It is one of those things that at least around here not too many people sell so there is not much to base the price off of.

I cut the individual stalks and bunch them together. I tell people to use the whole thing when they are cooking, leaves and all. I do not know why people do not use the leaves, so much flavor there.

When the weather is warmer I will put the celery in a bag to keep the heat from getting to it, but prefer not to do that because it will steam up and not look as good. You can see the celery in the picture below between the turnips and radishes.

The celery is in between the turnips and radishes so my mom can tell the difference, when she is selling for me at the market. She has made that mistake before, and I feel bad for the poor person who took home the radishes thinking they were turnips.