Asparagus bed

[countrykat]

I am finally going to start my asparagus bed. I have the spot almost ready. Will be able to finish up in the spring. I have 2 packs of Jersey Knight on the way. Should be about 60 seeds. I will start them inside in March. Any advice?

[tomc]

This year your seedling 'grass will make tiny ferns about the size of a #2 pencil-lead. I would plant those about one per square foot in a prepped bed this fall. Expect the following year some casualties (spring 2015)

You are going to pick a few to taste spring of 2016. Pick them lightly spring of 2017, and pick them till spears get thin and scrawny 2018.

After this year your going to put down a layer of cardboard and a thick layer of mulch (six inches or more) every spring and fall. fear not asparagus will grow through macadam pavement, it'll grow though cardboard & mulch.

Asparagus in the wild is a low-land-wet land plant. No matter who tells you to, don't use salt to suppress weeds. By the time you have added enough salt to suppress weeds you'll have a host of other garden problems.

The "spear" you've bought at the store, is an immature fern. As it grows out it'll look a whole lot more fern-y.

There are a few pest that like asparagus, in the larval stage they can be controlled by BT.

[jal_ut]

I have planted asparagus seed directly in the garden where it will remain. No transplanting. It is quite hardy once established. I have seen it growing along fences where I am sure it came up from some seed that got dropped there somehow. Over in the next valley, farmers plant acres of asparagus. In that area in all the barrow pits and along the railroad tracks there is wild asparagus. We would sometimes go over there in the spring and pick a bucketful in those areas.

It may be best to transplant it to get the crown a little deeper than they would be grown from seed.

From seed it takes three years before you get nice big spears. It is pretty common to buy 2 year crowns when starting an asparagus bed. This way you have a nice harvest the next year.

[gardeningwithe]

Great to see info about growing asparagus from seeds. Very helpful and informative.

[bwhite829]

Its interesting this thread came about. I was thinking about doing this in my small bed with crows...I'd be willing to sacrifice the small bed for some asparagus as its one of my fav veggies. Apparently it is too warm in florida to grow it well though. at $20-$35 or so for a bunch of crowns on burpee seed it is not something that I'd plant unless I'm sure they will thrive so I'm stuck to getting them in grocery stores

[jal_ut]

You may do OK with asparagus there in Pensacola. If you get enough cold to make the plants go dormant for a time they would likely do OK. Farther South I don't think you would get that dormancy.

[jal_ut]

Success with asparagus depends a lot on preparation of the plot. Be sure to dig it deep and work in a lot of manure and organic matter. After planting keep the weeds back for a space around it. Mulch and fertilize annually. Asparagus likes damp soil, but not soggy. You need good drainage.

When planting crowns, dig a trench about a foot wide and 6 inches deep. Put the crowns in and spread the roots, then cover 2 inches, water. As the shoots grow fill the trench in around them.

If you have them growing in pots, you would want to do the same, dig the trench as noted and set the plants in and fill around them, then finish filling the trench later as they grow up.

Have fun!

[gardeningwithe]

Would it be more advisable to start in pots and transfer later or is it ok to plant seed? I know seed takes longer, but I don't mind, just gives me more year of building the soil up nice.

[imafan26]

Jersey Knight is an all male hybrid. Are you sure you are getting seed not crowns? Mary Washington is the only asparagus I can get from seed.

If you are getting crowns instead of seed. You will save about 12 weeks.

[applestar]

Johnny's, Territorial, Park seed companies all sell Jersey Knight hybrid asparagus seeds. I guess the hybrid plants grow up to be all male.

My Purple Passion asparagus have made berries/seeds that dropped and sprouted next spring. I saved some of the berries previous fall and tried starting them from seeds, but in fact the volunteers in the garden are doing way better than the ones I have been trying to grow in containers.

[applestar]

I was going to weed and mulch my asparagus bed -- something I should have done much earlier... But I ended up not doing it because look what I found

Tiny asparagus seedling in front of today's harvestable shoot

Upon removing the larger weeds and looking closer, I found a number of these seedlings. I'm going to have to ponder what I'm going to do with them....

[tomc]

Jersey Knight seed is available. All the "super" male hybrids still set seed (although they do make fewer seed).

The difference is pretty marginal in a homestead situation. By seeds and keep your money warm where it belongs (in your wallet).

[skiingjeff]

I was going to weed and mulch my asparagus bed -- something I should have done much earlier... But I ended up not doing it because look what I found

Upon removing the larger weeds and looking closer, I found a number of these seedlings. I'm going to have to ponder what I'm going to do with them....

We have lots of little seedlings coming up this year. We've just been clipping them down thinking it would push the growing power into the roots????? Not sure if this is what we should be doing or not...

[rainbowgardener]

No, no! What feeds the roots for next year is the leaves / ferns. You need to let the spears grow up and develop in to ferns and then leave the ferns all through the season until they turn yellow. Then you can cut everything down to the ground. You will kill your plants if you keep doing what you are doing.

[skiingjeff]

RBG - just to clarify and be sure what we're doing. We have several old crowns we are harvesting and these new little ones. So even though I'm harvesting the bigger stalks still, let the little guys grow and fern and die out. Then when our year's harvest is done, cut down all the stalks (on the older crowns), fertilize, and let regrow into ferns???

It is just very confusing when you have old stuff and new stuff.

Thanks!

[rainbowgardener]

RBG - just to clarify and be sure what we're doing. We have several old crowns we are harvesting and these new little ones. So even though I'm harvesting the bigger stalks still, let the little guys grow and fern and die out. Then when our year's harvest is done, cut down all the stalks (on the older crowns), fertilize, and let regrow into ferns???

It is just very confusing when you have old stuff and new stuff.

Thanks!

Not sure I'm following all that. But you want to leave the new little ones totally alone, let them develop into ferns, don't pick or cut any. The big ones you can harvest until they start getting skinnier or some places they would say until June. Then you leave them alone also and let them develop ferns. Then in the fall you cut down all the ferns, from old and new plants alike.

I think your confusion is in here: " Then when our year's harvest is done, cut down all the stalks (on the older crowns), fertilize and let regrow into ferns" The stalks are the ferns (or at least they become them). The little scales on the asparagus spears we eat open up into branches and leaves/ferns. So when you are done harvesting, then you quit cutting and let the remaining spears and the new ones that come up after that develop in to ferns.

[skiingjeff]

I think I've got it! Thanks!

[imafan26]

When asparagus seeds the volunteers pop up twenty feet away. Sometimes I dig them up when they are still young and move them over. The other thing to do is to pull out the female plants and keep only the males. The males will produce larger shoots because less energy is spent making seeds.

[skiingjeff]

I gather you tell the male versus female because the females have the berries/seeds and the males do not. So when they go to fern, you pull up the ones with the seed pods/berries on them and leave the rest to die back??

I understood Martha Washington produces the seed pods but I guess it will produce both male and female plants?

Still learning a lot about these asparagus, but its worth it because they are so good!

[Lindsaylew82]

If you have asparagus already established, ( we found a HUGE mass of them growing under a power line and asked the business owner if we could jack them... He said whatevs, and we dug em. On our 5th year in their home!) and they make seeds, how do you prepare them (the seeds) for growing next season? Fermentation? Mine are fleshy red. Like holly berries.

Also, even the next season seedlings will grow through cardboard and 6" mulch?

[Lindsaylew82]

......also, ( sorry ) I've been thinking about interplanting strawberries with my asparagus. I read they're good companions several years ago... I can't seem to find that information now.

Y'all's impressions on companion planting with asparagus?

[skiingjeff]

We didn't do anything with the seeds as they just dried on the plants as the ferns turned yellow and dropped on their own. So they were pretty much self seeding....

We are finding seedlings everywhere though!

[Lindsaylew82]

I get at least 1 new teeny tiny fern every year, but they produce a good many berries, and I'd like to harvest them and plant them in a more controlled manner.

I also think I need to dig up my crown(s) and spread them out, if there are more than one crown....I'm not really studied up on asparagus.

I get 4-10 spears nearly every other day, to every three days, from a 2x2 area. But that's how we found them and I literally just dug a whole the same size and plopped my asparagus plug in, put some chicken poop on em and mulched them.

[tomc]

It is possible to grow out asparagus and cull the females.

All asparagus makes seed. Some do it more than others. What no seed house does is grow out asparagus and cull the females. To sell male only plants. If they do, crowns won't be a buck a piece...

Modern "Supermale" offerings simply make fewer seeds, and less often.

Old favorites like seedy Mary Washington remain a popular bird feeding station. they (birds) actively distribute seeds by feeding and self-grooming after feeding. which is why fence rows and utility lines are likely repositories of cast-off seed.

[skiingjeff]

It is possible to grow out asparagus and cull the females.

All asparagus makes seed. Some do it more than others. What no seed house does is grow out asparagus and cull the females. To sell male only plants. If they do, crowns won't be a buck a piece...

Will culling out the females on an existing bed harm the production by the remaining male plants?? Also if the male Martha type will make just as much seed as the female Martha type, are we really doing anything to avoid the seeding??

It sounds like your better off just letting things go however they are to go naturally and if seedlings pop up where you don't want them, pull the little guys out and eat them!

[tomc]

Will culling out the females on an existing bed harm the production by the remaining male plants?? Also if the male Martha type will make just as much seed as the female Martha type, are we really doing anything to avoid the seeding??

It sounds like your better off just letting things go however they are to go naturally and if seedlings pop up where you don't want them, pull the little guys out and eat them!

I would (and have) transplanted the volunteers. Because a five year old crown is huge, anything a human could transplant from root-tip to root-tip is a herculean labor. oh its possible to cut out a smallish disc from a mature crown, but you forstall spear harvest about as long as it takes for a volunteer to grow up.

For my lazy self, feeding beds liberally with mulch and manure, will getcha more-bigger harvest than taking out the girls.

The truck farmer who makes his living in the seat of a tractor might do better with supermale crowns. For me, I'd just transplant more volunteers as I needed them.