Celery requires plenty of moisture and fertilizer. This picky crop is susceptible to several diseases and pests, resulting in less than the best crop. Celery experiments have turned off many home gardeners due to their water needs and inability to handle hot weather. But despite all these challenges, Celery is a great plant to grow. Let’s check out a few common Celery plant problems below.

Celery is not usually the best crop for beginners to start as it has a slow-growing season and usually requires transplants. However, it’s not that complex if you follow the correct procedure. Celery has some plant-specific issues that can occur from time to time when growing stalks. It’s easy to fix most of them if you catch them early in the growing season. Even with moisture, fertile soil, and a suitable climate, Celery is rarely trouble-free.
Celery is sensitive to many pests and diseases. Celery usually has no serious pest problems, making it easier to take care of plants. However, if you are planting in spring, you may get into trouble with the slug. The best way to avoid diseases affecting plants is to practice crop rotation by not planting Celery where other Carrot family members have lived in the last few years.
22 Common Celery plant problems
Hollow stalks
Hollow Celery stalks are often complicated and stringy. Hollow stalks are a common issue when growing Celery. Usually, hollow stalks are caused by insufficient water or nutrients.
Solution – Give enough water to your growing Celery plants and remember that their shallow roots cannot reach the depths of the ground to drink. Your Celery plants are probably thirsty if the top layers of soil feel dry. Try using weekly compost tea to provide water and nutrients to your Celery plants. Compost tea is an excellent way for plants like Celery to consistently grow nutrients that require a permanent diet. You can also try to increase a strict variety of Celery, which can handle a little more deprivation than most Celeries.
Internal stalks and leaves die on tips and turn brown or black
Blackheart is associated with calcium deficiency. Calcium deficiency can prevent water use in the plant. Add water and mulch to protect soil moisture.
Solution – Test the soil; add gypsum or limestone if the soil is deficient in calcium. Maintain a pH of soil between 6.5 and 8.0. Plant-resistant Celery types.
In case you missed it: Celery Gardening For Beginners, HowTo Start

Damping-off
The damping-off causes soft and rotting seeds to germinate. It leads to the death of the seedlings before they erupt from the soil.
Solution – To manage this, avoid planting Celery in the soil that does not drain well. Plant Celery in enlarged beds and use high-quality seeds.
Bitter Celery
Celery becomes bitter and demanding when it is exposed to the sunlight.
Solution – Most commercial farmers prevent this by blanching the Celery by covering stalks with soil, paper, cardboard, or other material. Blanching the Celery will prevent the stalk from getting bitter.
Bolting
Celery plants will bolt when they experience much longer, warmer summer days. Try to place your plants to stay cool during heat waves and have enough shade.
Solution – Try to plant your Celery rows to soak up the gentler morning sun and cool in the afternoon shade. If necessary, create a partially shady paradise using screens for your plants.
All leaves, no stalks
It is one of the most frustrating Celery-growing issues. Short, bushy Celery plants look very funny. It happens when temperatures fluctuate a lot during the initial growing season. Then, when temperatures are everywhere, your plants don’t know what to do, so they bush out rather than tall ones.
Solution – Use gardening clothes or cold frames to give them a more consistent temperature and avoid planting too early.
Thin Celery stalk
There are many reasons why your Celery plants are not producing healthy, substantial stalks. Most commonly, the stalks are harvested before they are fully matured. Celery requires a long growing season, usually between 130 to 140 days.
Solution – If you harvest your stalks before you get ready, they will grow less. Skinny Celery is better than no Celery at all. Since Celery is highly sensitive to frost, you should keep an eye on the fall temperature and harvest if you have to. Your Celery plants may not be sending strong stalks due to dehydration, overheating, and inadequate nutrients. Celery grows best when it gets spoiled with all the attention.
Holes in the stalks and leaves
Celery worm is a larva of the black swallowtail butterfly.
Solution – They chew irregular holes in leaves and trunks but rarely more than a few in gardens. Celery leaftier, like a Celery worm, you can easily pick this small, green, and white guy from your plants and kill it. The green leaves of Celery and the holes in the stalk chew but rarely overwhelm an entire bed of Celery. Chickens love the caterpillar, so feed it if you have chosen to kill it.
In case you missed it: Growing Celery Hydroponically – a Full Guide

Chlorotic spots and brown lesions
This blight is caused by fungus. It needs humid weather after a long rainy season to thrive. This fungus causes chlorotic spots that turn into brown lesions.
Solution – It is challenging to fight after this soil-produced fungus starts. Try to keep your garden away from weeds and improve soil drainage. Applying neem oil can also help keep the blight at a distance.
Pests
Nematodes
Nematodes can produce galls on roots and yellow plants that will wilt in hot weather and reduce plant excitement. In addition, these insects prefer sandy soil, which is more common in sandy soiled fields or gardens.
Solution – To manage these pests, check plant resistance types, check roots in the middle of the season and solarize the soil to reduce the nematode population.
Armyworms
Armyworms feed the leaves, and the structured leaves will produce shallow wounds on the Celery and can lay eggs on the leaves.
Solution – To manage this attack, apply Bacillus thuringiensis.
Blister beetles
Leaves are eaten and partially defoliated. Blister beetles and tomato hornworms eat leaves. Solution – Handpick and destroy pests. Keep the garden away from weeds and debris. Cultivate in spring to kill larvae and disrupt the life cycle. Use spray or dust with Sevin or Pyrethrum or Rotenone spray.
Cabbage loopers
Cabbage Loopers are light green caterpillars with yellow stripes. Keep the garden clean from the debris where an adult brownish night-flying moth can lay eggs.
Solution – Cover the plants with spun polyester to remove the kites. Handpick up the loopers. Use Bacillus thuringiensis. Floating row covers can help prevent laying eggs on plants.
Cutworms
Cutworm is the caterpillar form of many different types of moths and will feed the stalks and leaves of your Celery plant.
Solution – To control the cutworm, you can search under the leaves using a flashlight. If handpicking does not work, you can add cardboard or sheet collars to your Celery plants to prevent the cutworms from reaching the base of the Celery plant. Bacillus thurigiensis can also be helpful.
In case you missed it: Celery Gardening Techniques, Ideas, and Tips

Leaf miners
These pests bore just below the leaf surface, causing the serpentine lines to be irregular. Larvae are yellow cylindrical maggots and small black and yellow flies. They usually do not kill plants but spoil leaves.
Solution – Remove the affected leaves.
Aphids
The aphids can cause the leaves to turn yellow and distort, make necrotic spots on the leaves, and stunt the shoot.
Solution:
- Oil spray – Oil-based pesticides break down quickly and control soft-bodied garden pests, including Aphids. Mix one teaspoon of vegetable oil and one teaspoon of liquid dish soap in a cup of water to make homemade oil sprays. To prevent the burning of possible leaves, wash the oil spray from Celery plants after a few hours. Applications may be necessary to control as pests should contact oil sprays effectively every few days.
- Soap spray – Insect soaps, both homemade and commercial, control and suffocate the Aphids by blocking their air holes. Adding three tablespoons of dish soap to 1 gallon of water will lead to a homemade soap spray that helps control the aphids. Use a soft dish soap that does not contain bleach, fragrance, or other unnecessary additions. Another option is to mix two tablespoons of soft baby shampoo with 1 gallon of water. Let the soap spray stay on Celery plants for a few hours before being removed from a hose. It will prevent possible leaf burns.
- Garlic and Pepper spray – You can make homemade Garlic and Pepper sprays to control garden pests such as Aphids by mixing 10 to 12 garlic cloves with 1 quart of water. This solution should sit for about 24 hours before remixing it and pulling the garlic pieces. Mix 1 tablespoon of the cane in black pepper before repressing the solution, and add 1 cup of cooking oil. Before spraying the Celery plants, this concentrated solution must be diluted at 1/2 cup per 1-gallon of water. Another way to control the aphids is to attract beneficial pests to hunt juice-sucking pests. Ladybugs and lacewings, for example, naturally control the aphids and other garden pests.
In case you missed it: Organic Celery Gardening in Containers

Snails and slugs
Large holes in leaves, snails, and slugs prefer cool temperatures.
Solution – Pick and destroy by hands; place protective borders of sand, lime, or wood ash around plants. Mulch with a wooden shaving or Oak leaves.
Diseases
Fusarium yellows
Yellows of Celery are caused by a yellow Celery soil-produced fungus. This fungus enters the Celery plant through the root system. The severity of this disease depends on the weather, especially the hot weather combined with heavy wet soil, increasing the number of seeds in the soil. Symptoms are yellow leaves with reddish stalks. The fungus can remain in the soil, remain dormant for many years, and then start settling down again given the right conditions.
Solution – If your plot is affected, try two to three years of crop rotation with Onions or Lettuce. Do not use Maize or Carrots as the fungus will increase in the root areas of these plants. Destroy any affected plants. If possible, use disease-resistant Celery plants. To reduce the risk of introducing fusarium to the garden, clean tools and even shoes, remove any Celery detritus, apply to well-drained soil and keep the area’s weeds free.
Cercospora leaf blight
Cercospora leaf blight infection results in irregular yellow-brown leaf spots with long stalks. This fungal disease is spread by warm temps as well as heavy rain.
Solution – Keep the area weed-free, as weeds contain fungicides, and avoid overhead watering, which spreads them.
Downy mildew
Symptoms include yellow spots on the upper surface of leaves, white-floppy growth under leaves, and lesions darkening as they mature. The disease affects young, soft leaves; the emergence and spread of the disease are loved by longleaf wetness.
Solution -Plant sterile seeds; don’t overcrowd plants. Rotate crops with non- umbelliferous varieties.
In case you missed it: 18 Common Carrot Plant Problems: How to Fix Them, Solutions, and Treatment

Pink rot
This fungal disease is another common problem for Celery plants in areas with poor drainage. If your soil has been continuously saturated with water for two weeks, keep an eye on the pink rot. The foundation of the stalk will start producing brown lesions with pink margins. The lesions spread the stalk until the whole plant falls into a mushy pile.
Solution – If you think pink rot is remaining in your soil, make it solarize before planting, water it reasonably, and maintain good drainage during your Celery bed.
Celery mosaic virus
Celery mosaic is a viral disease that produces mottling in the leaves between veins, after which the leaves become twisted, curled, or cranky.
Solution – There is no cure for the mosaic virus, and it spreads from plant to plant through aphids and leafhoppers. Destroy any affected plants. Plant resistant varieties in the future.
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