asparagus

[farmerjan]

Too much nitrogen will burn the small seedlings. Manure should be well composted before planting crowns. Fertilizing also should be done more in the fall so that it has a chance to benefit the roots of the crowns for the spring growth. To satisfy my curiousity, the U of Minn has some interesting and very thorough information on asparagus and fertilization etc.

 

[Britesea]

Those look so nice! I do see a couple of seedlings volunteer in my asparagus bed crop up each year. Maybe eventually they will fill out the bed. I started with 6 plants, and I think I now have about twice that of producers.

 

[Lilbitsnpieces]

What an amazing journey! I've been lurking..Took over my mom's care so really hard finding ME time..Didn't see what you used for the die back..I always have good luck with cardboard and newspaper..if it's recycled ink. Easy to get and free..I lay it thick! In fact I've used papers I have bundled as "walls" even.some are now almost 10 yrs old and Still intact! Cardboard I lay and water it..to keep in place I use something that's "advantageous" to what I'm planting..so for my new asparagus bed I used sand.. for a carrot bed I used leaves..left in their paper garden bags..then when ready just turned them in.

 

[CrealCritter]

Asparagus has most definitely grabbed hold. The kiddie pool is easy watering just gently pour 5 gallon bucket at the rim level of the pool. It drains slow and covers the entire barn scraping about an inch. Some of the ferns are around 18 inches tall now. The roots just keep sending them up, so the top of the kiddie pool is completely covered in ferns. It's hard to even pull a weed in there now.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[CrealCritter]

Well... Fall planted asparagus is emerging.

Three shoots from this crown.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[farmerjan]

If there are more than 3 spears from a crown, and the spear is at least finger size, it actually is good to harvest sparsely so that there are not too many spears trying to grow and then go to ferns... it will deplete the roots a little actually, before they actually will feed the crowns. I agree with not "harvesting" a crop but a meal would not hurt if there are a couple of size from each crown...

 

[R2elk]

Asparagus update...

So the early spears got hit with hard freeze and wilted and died back. Had I known, I could have cut some for supper. But crowns are sending up new spears again so that's good. Pretty tough plants that's for sure. I'll harvest sparingly next spring.

Plan is to scrape out the cattle run in and spread out over the bed, sometime next month would be good. If weeds are bad I may do a shallow till along the sides and hand pull up around the ferns, before spreading out cattle scrapings. The I'll just continue to build up the bed with whatever organic matter I can scrape together and apply when the ferns go dormant. I could stand a halfway decent wood chipper, perhaps one might come along.
View attachment 23089

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

At first picking of the early shoots that happen before the end of freezing temps, I do take all shoots big enough to eat because they will freeze back and be lost anyway.

Once killing frosts are over, I leave the young plants alone. I have not noticed any loss of young plants by doing it this way. Whether I harvest the shoot or the frost gets it, the plant recovers for me.

 

[CrealCritter]

I would say we had a very high crown survival transplant rate from last fall. I seen 2 skips but little spears poking up so many 100% success rate. Hopefully you can see the ferns popping up in the row. Some are nearly 5 foot tall, the largest being, maybe slightly smaller in diameter than my pinky finger. Hopefully they grow well this summer and I'll be able to harvest sparingly early next spring.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks for all the links/tips. Ordered some from the seed nerds that @Mini Horses referenced... they also have the Country Gentleman "shoe peg" white corn I like... open pollinated... so hope to save some seed for next year after I get it all grown/planted/harvested. See how it goes with them. The price was good and a good number of seeds per package... Have you looked at the prices of seeds in the stores? and they don't give you near so much as they used to either... I am going to see what/if there are any asparagus crowns at any of the stores/nurseries... would like to try some of the purple ones for fun.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks for all the links/tips. Ordered some from the seed nerds that @Mini Horses referenced... they also have the Country Gentleman "shoe peg" white corn I like... open pollinated... so hope to save some seed for next year after I get it all grown/planted/harvested. See how it goes with them. The price was good and a good number of seeds per package... Have you looked at the prices of seeds in the stores? and they don't give you near so much as they used to either... I am going to see what/if there are any asparagus crowns at any of the stores/nurseries... would like to try some of the purple ones for fun.

Purple Passion are good.