How big is your asparagus bed?

My asparagus loving 5 yo is looking forward to the prospect of his favorite vegetable in the backyard, but how much space should I allot?  2'x4'? 3'x4?  I'd love to plant it with strawberries too.

emadethis wrote:My asparagus loving 5 yo is looking forward to the prospect of his favorite vegetable in the backyard, but how much space should I allot?  2'x4'? 3'x4?  I'd love to plant it with strawberries too.

If you have kids that love asparagus, go for the bigger plot!  I am doing 2 1x4's just for me.  Asparagus does not like to compete with anything, so you have to be careful what else you put in with it.  My 1x12 bed did not work, as the phlox that had inhabited the space previously would not give up, I couldn't keep up with cleaning it out, so only 3 of my 12 crowns are still surviving in year 3.  I am giving in to the phlox, planting my 'gus elsewhere, and am adding a large variety of flower seeds in with the phlox to make a Pollinator Box.

GG

Mine is along the side of our garage where grass didn't grow well, largely due to rain shadow and no reason to water it there.  The asparagus bed is 3'x18'--planted 18 crowns in 2012--looking forward to a big harvest this spring.  I've also stuck some flowers and pepper plants in the very front last year--they did very well and co-existed with the asparagus just fine.

I have two beds...4x6 and 4x8. I love the fresh asparagus and may put in another bed. I keep hoping to have enough to freeze but it's so delicious, we eat it all.

emadethis-

I poked around online and so far found recommendations of 10 to 15 crowns per person.  I have a 4 by 4 bed with 38 crowns planted last year.  That size bed could hold a maximum of 64. I put parsley in with it last year which did very well, this year think I may add strawberries as others talked about.

In this Mother Earth article it says 35 plants will give you 20 meals each being one pound bundles.
Oh my.  I over did the planting for 2 people...   Blanch and freeze is in my future..

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/companion-planting-zmaz95fmztak.aspx?PageId=3#axzz2zQeh5N48

You should pickle some of it. Sooo good.

llama momma wrote:emadethis-

I poked around online and so far found recommendations of 10 to 15 crowns per person.  I have a 4 by 4 bed with 38 crowns planted last year.  That size bed could hold a maximum of 64. I put parsley in with it last year which did very well, this year think I may add strawberries as others talked about.

In this Mother Earth article it says 35 plants will give you 20 meals each being one pound bundles.
Oh my.  I over did the planting for 2 people...   Blanch and freeze is in my future..

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/companion-planting-zmaz95fmztak.aspx?PageId=3#axzz2zQeh5N48

Llamamomma, how is your asparagus going with 38 in a 4x4 bed? I just got 25 crowns, and am debating planting them in a 2x7 bed? That would be about 2 per SF?  That seems soooo crowded, but the SFG book says you can plant 1-4 per square?  I've never done asparagus, but went in with a friend on some that's supposed to grow well in our area. I got it in the mail today so need to figure out quick!!  Thanks!!

Mine are doing ok I think.  I used a typical 4 ft square box.  Looks like 33 out of 38 have sprouted, the 5 haven't showed up yet were all from Lowe's.  Some squares have one or two crowns, other squares have 3 and four crowns. I think they are happy at this point. A couple are twisted or bent, not sure what that means.  If I had the money to blow I wouldn't mind having all the squares jammed up with 64 crowns.  But for now I'm glad nearly all survived this winter.   Anyway I thought you might like to see what the density looks like at this point, considering I cut about 20 spears.

You can see my pen in the background sticking up for reference, here is a close up of that-

Thank you LM for the quick reply! We have about 300 sf of nice soil, so I'd love to use it for asparagus! I keep reading about how BIG it gets, so I just wanted to see if they'd all fit! Sounds like they will. We have a lot of property, but I really don't want to maintain another area if unnecessary. Do the plants hang very far outside the box when they get all bushy?  I've never even SEEN an asparagus plant!! lol TY so much!!

LM,

Those resemble asparagus TREES!

Meanwhile, several of my spears succumbed to last week's freezing temperatures, but there are a few new ones about to break ground.  

With luck, I won't have to cover the bed more than another time or two this spring. Meanwhile, my indoor-outdoor thermometer monitor is parked on my bedside table.  Too bad I can't set an alarm for, say, around 33F.

SG
Somewhere in a thread from last year I have a picture of stakes in the bed w/white plastic coated laundry line running through the rows to hold up the tall spears.  I also put up a chicken wire fence outside the bed but room for me to walk around inside.  Draped a tarp on the south and west sides to block the wind.  Both clothesline and ch. wire  worked well.  The chicken wire also kept out barn cats and other wild critters.

Donna Hi there - glad you still have survivors!  Warmer temps are coming.  I just read some advice from Ohio state Univ. that says to leave the fronds all winter long, chop down in April when there is less chance of freezing new tender spears.  Then simply harvest new spears without late winter worries.   Hmmm, I may do that next year.  But then I've seen conflicting advice to cut the fronds in the fall to prevent insects from overwintering.  I get weary sometimes trying to figure out which garden advice is better
 

We have 3 spears up   boy do they grow fast once they are up!

hugs
rose

OH MY LLm what BIG spears you have!! 

how are you able to leave them in the bed like that? 

If I had a bed like that all the tops would be chomped off by now   


hugs
rose

with 40 new 3 year old purple passion and 8 20 year old neglected crowns.  All are making ferns but probably no harvest this year since they were just planted.  Fortunately on drip irrigation.

Rose- 
Lol,
I think putting in strawberry starts a couple years ago then having to wait sort of broke me in.  I've eaten about 20-25 spears for this year.  If what I read is true then picking very lightly now will ensure future harvests will be heavy.  Supposedly over harvesting young crowns will return small harvests for the entire life of the crown.  Certainly didn't want to do that!

kauairosina - that's a lot !   Best wishes!

My asparagus bed is 20 feet long by 1 foot wide and may or may not have 20 asparagus crowns in it. It was recently planted about 3 weeks ago and so far nada.

kauairosina, can't you eat the three year old ones right away? Or does the 3 year rule mean three years in the bed?

ooops I put my post about seeing spears in our garden in the wrong thread   didn't relies it until it was to late and cant change it.....

to stay on topic our asparagus bed is 2x6 ....4 years old...planted 6 two year old crowns and   this is the first year for us to get any spears ......

hugs
rose

3'x6', planted 3 kinds last year.

This will be the third year of our replacement asparagus crowns .

I hit the last lot of two year old home grown crowns witha good spraying of  roundup weed killer thinking.. " Tee te tum , Gosh there's a hell of a lot of weeds in this ANSFG bed " , then a few minutes later realising  ... " OAF! ... you've just sprayed the asparagus  ANSFG bed of asparagus" .

 When this builder guy or ours finally turns up and builds the extra raised beds for me I want to move the crowns over to a large 24 sq foot dedicated 20 year plus  bed , have any of you actually moved some estabished productive three year old crowns  ?

If so , what problems did you meet if any ?
 
Was the stalk production cycle interrupted for a couple of  years ?

Last summer, I moved my two-year-old (?) crowns from one bed to another, one shovelful/square foot at a time.  They're coming up now, albeit with frost and/or fusarium damage.

The good news: I took three samples to my local Master Gardener, and she thinks it's frost damage only.  The lower stems are green and healthy.   Fingers crossed!

Mel has said if something needs to be moved its easy with the soft soil less mix. I've moved strawberries and marigolds with no problem.  Had no idea asparagus could handle the disturbance too. Good to know!