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About Asparagus
Asparagus is one of the most popular vegetables for home gardeners. While being expensive to purchase at the market it is fairly easy to grow. It only need be planted once for many years of Spring harvesting. A single asparagus planting can produce for up to fifteen years given proper care.
Asparagus is among the earliest of vegetables able to be grown and harvested from the garden and it thrives in most hardiness zones in the United States. Best zones will allow a winter freeze that will freeze the soil at least a few inches deep. For this reason the Gulf Coast states do not offer ideal conditions for the growing of Asparagus.
Planning
Preparing an Asparagus bed is difficult work, but done right, maintaining it is quite simple. In many cases the only care required will be weeding. Asparagus is most often grown from young crowns, the thin storage roots attached to an underground stem called a rhizome. With care, however, it is possible to grow asparagus by sowing seeds directly into your garden or by raising transplants from seed.
The easiest way to start a new bed of asparagus is from crowns. Asparagus plantings will generally take three to four seasons to become fully established. Each year the roots will develop further and send up more spears than the year before. If you start from crowns it is probable you will be harvesting a small amount of spears in the second year. Starting with seeds or seedlings will require you have at least three seasons worth of patience before harvesting.
Asparagus roots are available at many garden centers and may not need to be ordered directly. However, carefully inspect any crowns before purchasing to be sure they are firm and not soft. Any torn or otherwise broken roots should be trimmed back to healthy tissue. You may refrigerate the crowns until you are ready to plant them.
The best time to plant your asparagus is early spring as soon as the soil can be worked. This is true regardless if you are planting from seed, seedlings or crowns. The new plants need to get growing before the hot, dry weather of summer sets in. If the days are warm and the nights are cool you will be rewarded with shoots within a couple weeks of planting.
Preparation
Selecting the site for your asparagus bed is of the greatest importance. The fern-like plant will grow in excess of five feet tall so be careful to plant asparagus far enough away from other crops that it will not rob them of the sun they require.
Choose a sandy, well-drained spot in full sun for your asparagus bed. Asparagus does not do well in wet soil so if you have clay soil, choose a hilltop or hillside where water can easily drain off the top of your soil and away from your plantings. Don't be afraid to choose very sandy soil as your planting spot.
Asparagus does not require full sun although it is not harmed by it, either. It does best is sandy loam soil with a pH of about 6.5, but can manage alkaline conditions. In the West there are many who grow asparagus in soil with pH levels of 8 or more.
Take the time to work the soil for your bed a foot deep, adding plenty of organic matter along the way. You will want to apply about 4 pounds of 5-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet of bed. You may also consider adding bonemeal which provides an excellent source of phosphorus - needed for root growth. Asparagus roots grow wide so dig trenches at least 4 feet apart from one another. Set the crowns 18 inches apart in the row and cover with just 2 inches of soil. As the new shoots come up, gradually fill in the trench. Water generously when tops are developing.
Care
Keep your asparagus beds very well weeded as the crowns are getting established. Periodically add more of the soil and compost mix around emerging shoots until the trench is filled. When the trench is filled completely add a four to six inch thick layer of mulch to keep weeds down throughout the season.
Asparagus should receive about an inch of water a week.
In the early fall remove the mulch and apply a balanced fertilizer at about 2 pounds per 100 square feet then replace the mulch. Cut down the dead ferns late in the fall and burn them so as to prevent harboring pests or diseases.
Keeping the asparagus bed free of weeds is perhaps the most important task you will face in maintaining your bed. Some gardeners like to apply salt between the plants as the asparagus can withstand the salt, however, this is not recommended as it can dry the asparagus and leach into other crops nearby.
Pests / Disease
Asparagus plants are quite hardy when well established and do not suffer from many diseases or insects. Although Asparagus Beetles and Japanese Beetles may damage some of your spears it is unlikely you will need pesticides to keep them in check.
Rust is a common disease among asparagus but there are rust resistant varieties of asparagus to choose from when first deciding what to plant.
Harvesting
If you started your bed from crowns, you should be able to harvest for a week or two in the spring of the second year. The third year will give you 3 or 4 weeks of harvesting and about 6 weeks every year thereafter. If you live in the Gulf States or where the summer evenings remain above 70 degrees Farenheit you may want to wait an extra year before beginning a harvest.
Select only spears that are thicker than a pencil. Anything smaller than that should be allowed to go to fern. Cut or snap off the spears at or just below ground level while they are shorter than about 8 inches tall. When new spears begin getting smaller it is time to end your harvest.
Asparagus Varieties
Shop for Asparagus Needs
Garden-Helper.com recommends the following sources for your asparagus needs:
http://www.jerseyasparagus.com
Amazon.com offers many Asparagus
Asparagus Links
Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board
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