Growing asparagus from little seed berries?

Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:28 pm

Hey, so i got some little asparagus berries from the neighbor, how do i plant these?

do they need to dry or anything? what kind of soil do they grow good in(we live in the desert and its sandy, but where they were growing there is a lot of mulchy compost stuff)

can i just plop the entire berries in the ground and water?

Sat Jun 11, 2011 11:45 pm

Ripe asparagus seed are red (and only occasionally black) when ripe. If your seed were ripe, then you can plant them when ever you are ready.

Green berrys are probably not ripe, and may not germinate.

Just know seedling asparagus ferns look like hairy blades of grass. At some time will need to be spaced two feet apart to grow to full adult size (about year four).

Were you to pick apart those 'berrys' inside you will find two, or four black seeds.

Wed Jun 22, 2011 2:23 pm

It takes a long time to grow a asparagus from seed. We planted crowns and evn with crowns you have to wait 2 years before you can pick them properly. Well worth the wait - though am not sure I could be bother to wait for the seeds

I would plant them and see if it works - it's always worth a try.

Wed Jun 22, 2011 3:31 pm

I missed harvesting a really thick spear of Purple Passion asparagus so I let it grow. It grew into a huge stalk and is now full of green berries.

I'll probably let them fully ripen and see what happens....

Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:57 pm

plant the whole berry. leave it outside all winter where the rains wont destroy the soil. they will sprout in spring.

like mentioned you wont get asparagus for 4-5 years. but it will produce for 20 years+ after that. growing asparagus from seed is extremely cheap.

Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:53 am

applestar wrote:I missed harvesting a really thick spear of Purple Passion asparagus so I let it grow. It grew into a huge stalk and is now full of green berries.

I'll probably let them fully ripen and see what happens....

While I am more fond of the countless volunteers of Mary Washington, than purple cultivars, please let me encourage you to let seed ripen collect it and plant it to either cold frame (to cold stratify) or dry seed and plant in spring. either way it'll grow.

Call me John Chapman if you must, but asparagus makes a very large crown that only a tiny fraction of which is ever collected from nursery grown crowns.

IMO selling crowns is a good business for the nurseryman, and rather less so for the home gardener.

I have loved asparagus since the fifties, and grown nursery grown crowns and from seed enough times, to be more comfortable with my seed money in my pocket, than in the nurserymans pocket...