Give me your wisdom about growing asparagus.

[verde]

Our asparagus patch is looking sad and DH and I aren't sure why. It gets lots of sun. We've applied horse manure and compost. We talk to them and tell them how much we love them. But still, they don't grow.

We've had lots of success in other parts of our garden: lovely lettuce, beautiful basil, fabulous berry bushes and so much more. But for some reason we have failed with the asparagus.

What have you learned about growing asparagus? What has your success and/or failure taught you? We appreciate any bits of advice you have.

Thank you in advance.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

What kind of soil do you have? Asparagus like well drained sandy soil. They don't do well if water sits around their roots for too long. Does your soil drain well? Are they in an area where water collects during a rain or when the snow melts?

[lmonter]

A local organic farm of mine has had numerous issues with asparagus. Apparently, it took them years and years to start getting a decent crop. She said it took 3 or 4 different location tries, tons of composted manure and other compost and so on. You also have to do the wait until they're 4yo to fully harvest.

I planted over 100 1yo crowns last year (mostly from Simmons Plant Farm if you're curious). So they ferned out and all that by the end of the season. This year I think I'll harvest a few spears (maybe enough for a dinner?), and have to let them fern out again. Next year I'll finally be able to harvest, harvest, harvest.

I do know that lack of weeds makes all the difference, at least for me. My asparagus has totally perked up since I've managed to get 96sf of it weeded in the last few days. Now to mulch it to death so no more weeds can get in. Oh, and we have drip irrigation there, too, so they're watered quite regularly (or as we want them to be).

[AnnieinBC]

Verde, did u plant your asparagus in a trench? How is your soil?

We put our bed in 3 years ago, using 1 yr old crowns. We're planning on eating a lot of spears this year!
I agree they need good draining soil, and they love lots of compost or manure....plus a really good weeding of the bed, followed by maybe 4 inches of mulch to keep the weeds down.

How long ago did u plant the bed?

Annie

[verde]

Thanks for the replies. This is the 3rd year. My DH planted the crowns. I think it's pretty well-drained but I suppose it could be better. We added compost but could always add more. They are NOT planted in a trench -- they are in a bed and no water accumulates. I try to keep up with watering although in July and August in can get really hot.

Before we got married, DH had an asparagus bed. He'd found some wild asparagus and transplanted it to his yard and it did great. I guess that's why this is sooooo disappointing. We made a special bed with lots of compost ect... we practically kiss them goodnight every night and a whole lot of them fizzled anyway. Sigh...

We've decided we won't give up. So maybe we just need to add some sand and more compost to the soil. We'll try.

[lmonter]

Maybe ignore them a little bit?

I didn't plant mine in a trench. I dug maybe 4-6 inches down, swirled the roots in, tamped down some soil, watered. I was 38-42 weeks pregnant when I was planting them. Digging 12-18 inches down just wasn't going to happen in any reality I was in. They got sporadically watered and all that. I mean, think of the wild asparagus. It's used to being ignored. There probably weren't any sprinklers out there, and fighting with weeds to survive was probably the name of the game.

But we'll see whether my haphazardness works out later on or next year, so don't quote me quite yet.

[AnnieinBC]

Oh...well if this is the third year for your bed, then I hope you will be pleasantly surprised and see them all start popping up this year!

[dharmama]

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[dziwozony]

i was coming on here to ask questions about asparagus- hope you don't mind if i intrude a bit?

so if i understand correctly: you plant crowns in a well drained, sunny spot then let it grow (with lots of manure/compost), trim it before it seeds, do this for 3 years & THEN harvest the spring shoots?

where do you get the crowns to begin with? can you start with seed & get your own?

thanks!! i've had it in my head lately that i really want to get asparagus going & it's autumn here (southern hemisphere).

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by dziwozony

so if i understand correctly: you plant crowns in a well drained, sunny spot then let it grow (with lots of manure/compost), trim it before it seeds, do this for 3 years & THEN harvest the spring shoots?

where do you get the crowns to begin with? can you start with seed & get your own?

Nope, no trimming. You want the asparagus to flower out/go to seed. It's quite spectacular, really. I sure didn't expect the fluffiness that first year. By letting the asparagus do it's thing without you cutting it the first few years, the root system has a chance to get developed and nice and big so you can get a larger crop as it ages. You may end up with berries if you get a rogue female plant or something though - I think I ended up with two female plants (some people prefer male plants because they have bigger spears) because I found a few little red berries of seeds when weeding at the beginning of the year. Works for me though, I'm okay with an asparagus patch that re-seeds itself.

I got most of my crowns from Simmons Plant Farm (.com). I even had to call up and chance my shipping date, and they were very nice. I also ordered bareroot blackberries and blueberries from 'em, too. I did get some Purple Passion asparagus from Irish Eyes, but only about half of them took so I need to call them up and have a discussion.

You can start from seed, but buying crowns gives you a 1-2 year head start. Typically you don't harvest until year #4. I think there's photos of my asparagus patch on my blog - some of it is even up to my 5.5yo's shoulder this year.

[AnnieinBC]

Verde, did u end up being able to harvest any of your asparagus? We have been picking spears, not a whole lot of them, but enough to satisfy our urge, lol!

Soon we will stop picking all together and let them just grow up and do their thing for the rest of the season. Next year should be even better, with a bigger harvest.

Annie