The cycle of the celery season began with the seed. Seed, so minute that one ounce  could yield up to 10,000 plants, was started in shallow pans that were kept indoors in a warm damp environment. By the early twentieth century when improved technology and now varieties of celery permitted marketing by June, some grower started seed for the first crop in early February, traditionally on Ground Hog's Day.

Most commercial growers also maintained their own greenhouses. Small greenhouses covered with removable sashes and heated by a small wood, coal, or later fuel oil stove were widely used in Kalamazoo County. After evenly distributing the seed in elevated seeds beds within the greenhouses, a layer of burlap was laid down. This was kept well sprinkled.

The type of celery grown in Kalamazoo County required blanching or, as it was sometimes called, bleaching. The blanching process excluded sunlight from the celery stalks and produced an effect similar to what occurs to grass that has been covered with a board for several days. Blanching "promoted flavor, crispness and tenderness in edible leaf stalk, by destroying the green coloring matter and reducing the amount of fibrous tissue present."

After eight weeks of growing in the open fields, providing the weather was cooperative, celery was ready for the blanching process. By the 1880's this was accomplished in the Kalamazoo area by the use of boards. Hemlock or white pine boards one inch thick, 12 inches wide and 12, 14, or 16 feet in length were lugged into the fields and places end to end and along the rows.