Asparagus

Llama momma Thanks for the link. I went to their website and they no longer have Millenium, I guess it sold out. It seems to be on a trial basis with many growers still.

I have been enjoying the surfing through all these scholarly articles on asparagus as well. Somewhere I did find a good comparison list of disease resistances but I did not bookmark it, sorry

Any ideas on growing strawberries as a living mulch under asparagus? I know asparagus dislikes competition, but strawberries are pretty low growing and shallow rooted. I know from experience that asparagus can handle columbines but not grass. I started a pot of Alpine strawberries this fall and am thinking to plant them on the edge of the now 4x8 bed of asparagus.

I'm curious for those of you who have established asparagus, how you planted them? Did you use raised beds? What size beds? How high are the beds? How many crowns were planted?

I'm planning on starting asparagus this year. At this point I was thinking a 2 x 8. Not sure how high, yet.

Any recommendations?

TIA

I am adding your post to a previous thread about starting asparagus beds.

syrah2422 wrote:I'm curious for those of you who have established asparagus, how you planted them? Did you use raised beds? What size beds? How high are the beds? How many crowns were planted?

I'm planning on starting asparagus this year. At this point I was thinking a 2 x 8. Not sure how high, yet.

Any recommendations?

TIA

My bed is a raised 4x8, about 6 inches high, and I started with 10 Mary Washington crowns. That variety reseeds, and after several years I am at the point where I am thinning it.

Because asparagus is a heavy feeder and can be a bit temperamental when it is just starting out I went old school preparing the bed. The autumn prior to planting I dug down a couple of feet and worked in manure, compost, and some odds and ends I had kicking about. I recall with certainty about 10 pounds of alfalfa that was given to me by someone or other, and the bag ends of some bone meal, blood meal, and kelp. Then I dumped cocoa husk mulch over all and waited for spring. It was fairly heaped up when I first finished, but by spring it had settled considerably. All I had to do at that point was plant my crowns.
I have since been told I did that exactly backwards, and should have prepped in the spring and planted in the fall. It worked out just fine for me so I figure that at least in my climate either or works.

Be certain of where you are putting it. Undisturbed it will produce for years, but transplanting it elsewhere is an iffy operation.

Well, it's been about 20 days since we planted our asparagus crowns. We've had some rains, some very warm days and some not so warm ones. I don't see any signs of life for any of my crowns. How long should I expect them to make up their minds and start sprouting before I checked them off as dead?

We dug up textbook beds, worked in composted cow manure (I have pretty good soil in the yard as is), added a nice sprinkle of blood meal, and created little couches for the crowns before covering them up with soil. The crowns were soaked in a compost tea solution for 30 minutes, as was suggested on one of the gardening sites. We spread out all the roots, and kept the correct spacing religiously. We covered the roots with 2-3 inches of soil for now. I was planning to put down some semi-decomposed wood chips as mulch as soon as I saw any signs of life, but I have yet to see any...

Don't be to quick, asparagus needs a bit of warm weather, not hot, but no freezing nights, to come out of hiding. The first of mine is up about 2 in. as of yesterday. It rained most of today so didn't get out to garden today. If the nights stay above 40, it will be up in full force by next weekend!
Jo

I have crowns ordered and am expecting them to arrive this week or next. I was reading an article from the The OSU Extension Service. It recommendst applying superphosphate fertilizer when planting. Another extension service seems to be saying that vermicompost will supply the phosphorous. I am not familiar with superphosphate. Doesn't sound very organic!!! Any thoughts? BTW, I am just about ready to harvest my first worm factory bin, so that should be available for the asparagus patch.

I think the superphosphate is some kind of rock that they have ground into a powder. I think it is organic. I just added some regular compost when I planted and add some more on top of soil after I finish picking for the yr. I put mine in MM in a 12 in deep bed.
Jo

Superphosphate

If it was me I would add plenty of rich mixed or homemade compost to the bed before planting. These beds, once planted, will not be disturbed for years.

I guess I panicked a bit too soon. We had a nice warm dripping rain last night, and this morning I found three asparagus shoots (from three different plants) in the beds. They are thin and long, but they are mine, and I love them already. This is not our harvesting year, so I'll just let them live and prosper. Hopefully other crowns aren't too far behind. Once I see more sprouts, I'll put down the decomposed wood chips as mulch and slow release nutrition and be done. Yay! Thanks to all for words of reassurance. I am excited!

My obsessive self, running to the backyard every couple of hours, to find more and more asparagus shoots. This morning they were mostly Jersey Knight ones. Now I see Purple Passion coming out, too. Those are more chubby purple ones. Still waiting for the Mary Washington ones. I guess I wasn't looking hard enough, else I'd have to assume they all came out on the same night. I don't think I've been this excited since my kid's birth.

Weedless -

Don't forget to blanket them up if it gets too chilly for them tonight.

Oh man am I ever jealous. I went to check on mine and not the first twig yet

I'm still waiting for the crowns to be delivered in the next week or two....

I'm waiting too! I'm nervous about my new bed, which isn't a SFG, being good enough for the crowns, but we'll see.

As of today, 13 out of my 26 plants have sprouted. Two of the sprouts are already shooting leaves on the sides. Yippee! I'll post pictures when I have good ones. It's hard to angle the camera right, since they are so low on the ground and spindly - can't exactly do the usual "top view". I'll wait for my neighbor to get inside, so he can't see me crawling in the trenches with a camera .

waiting for ours to show up

hoping we get to eat some this year!

happy gardening
rose

I made a late afternoon visit to the gardens yesterday and spotted 5 or 6 green stalks sticking up thru the pine straw. I am so excited.

Awesome!

I got my asparagus crowns via UPS today! So excited - only it's supposed to be rainy the next few days, I wonder if I should just stash them in the fridge until the weekend. Would that be okay?

NHGardener wrote:I got my asparagus crowns via UPS today! So excited - only it's supposed to be rainy the next few days, I wonder if I should just stash them in the fridge until the weekend. Would that be okay?

Plant them asap they will be waking up , make the most of the rain for watering them in , get wet , you won't dissolve .

I've just taken my grown from seed jobbies that I did in my tubes and over wintered up to their necks in the garden in the tubes . I found the slightest hint of new growth on the 1 " high crown that had 3 " roots .

So I planted them in the herb garden as a temp measure till next year by which time I hope to have a decent three foot high brick built bed set up so I don't have to bend over to harvest them over the next twenty years or so .

Okay.

bnoles wrote: I made a late afternoon visit to the gardens yesterday and spotted 5 or 6 green stalks sticking up thru the pine straw. I am so excited.

Way to go bnoles!

I am toying with the idea of planting some two year old male crowns. Pike's nursery has a nice selection.

Your success has given me some hope! (Especially since we live in the same region.)

Go for it Windmere! I am beside myself thinking how wonderful it will be to go out in the back yard and cut my own home grown asparagus.