Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


floated in at least three days before the plants are set. How-
ever, if the weather should be unseasonably wet and cold in
the growing season, some further side-dressing with nitrogen
might be beneficial. It is suggested that this side-dressing con-
sist of nitrate of soda or nitrate of potash on normal, unburned
soils, or of sulfate of ammonia on neutral or slightly burned
soils, applied at approximately 200 pounds to the acre. It should
not be worked in deeply, because of the mass of roots near the
surface of the soil. Assuming that the celery field is adequately
mole-drained and that water does not stand on it, this side-
dressing should be applied as soon as the water from the un-
seasonable rains has subsided and the field is workable.

 MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS
 Celery should not be planted on raw land. The first year
that sawgrass soils are broken it is better to plant them to some
crop of low fertility requirements. Sawgrass decomposes rather
slowly, and during the process of decomposition crops requiring
large amounts of fertilizer will not do well.
 Although seedbeds are commonly raised two to three inches
to permit rapid surface irrigation, it is neither necessary nor
desirable to set the celery in the fields upon raised beds in the
Everglades area. Celery is commonly planted in rows 30 inches
apart, and with a four-inch spacing between plants. Under
such conditions, there will be approximately 52,275 plants to
the acre. The relatively close spacing usually will prevent pro-
duction of too many extra large stalks, will encourage erect
stalks with good hearts, and will give a high per acre yield.
The distance between rows is commonly modified somewhat
for convenience in spraying, depending upon type of equip-
ment used.
 With regard to celery varieties, only the so-called self-
 blanching types are grown. Selected strains and especially
 bred varieties of celery are being introduced almost yearly by
 the seed houses. Some of these "specials" have done very well,
 and almost all of them are improvements over the old Golden
 Self-Blanching.
 In all of this experimental work the only filler used with
 the fertilizer mixtures was sawgrass peat soil. Consequently
 the filler may be ignored completely in a consideration of the
 active ingredients of the fertilizer mixtures. In the event that
 the grower mixes his own fertilizer, or has it mixed to his order,