Celery · Norfolk, Virginia, United States
When to plant celery in Norfolk
Main outdoor window
24 Mar - 14 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 March
In Norfolk, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
12 Jun - 2 Jul
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Norfolk
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
29 Dec - 20 Jan
Ten weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
24 Mar - 14 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
12 Jun - 2 Jul
Celery through the year
Against the frost risk in Norfolk
Why these dates
Start ten weeks before last frost but plant out two weeks after it. Celery exposed to a fortnight below 10C after transplanting will bolt rather than form heads.
Light frost is tolerated at maturity, but cold early in life triggers bolting. This crop is unusual in that too-early planting causes failure without any visible frost damage.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Celery are timed from 10 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Norfolk.
The median frost-free season here is 272 days, against 80 to 100 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Norfolk
Other vegetables to time
Growing celery in Norfolk
When should I plant celery in Norfolk?
Aim for 24 Mar - 14 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 11 Apr - 2 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will celery be ready to harvest in Norfolk?
Expect to start picking around 12 Jun - 2 Jul, based on 80 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will celery tolerate?
Light frost is tolerated at maturity, but cold early in life triggers bolting. This crop is unusual in that too-early planting causes failure without any visible frost damage.