Asparagus Blooming?

Is it okay for my asparagus to bloom? It has little buds on it right now. Should I leave it alone or cut off the blossoming stems? Also, should I prune the long stems that want to fall down or leave them alone? (I'm not a helicopter gardener. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!)

Yes it is good to let it bloom.  I try to leave the skinniest (thinner than a pencil diameter) asparagus grow and bloom.  Sometimes bigger ones slip by and I let those go also.  These stalks will collect the sun's energy and store it in the plant underground for next years harvest.  Sometimes the longest stems fall over or blow over. I let them be. I have a 4 foot tall chicken wire and green u-posts around the box to keep out critters and allows the extra tall stalks to lean on it instead of perhaps breaking.  The cheap fence set up is just wide enough to pull it open it and walk around the box to tend to it and pick out weeds. Asparagus does not compete very well with weeds. You might know parsley is compatible with it. A nice option if you like to get the most out the box. I tried it and parsley did nicely in there too.

Maybe we leave too many fronds I really dont know.  Over the season we leave the thin ones and some get big fore we find em and the bed getts pretty thick.  very few weeds survive the inner bed and I kinda doubt parsley would.  We are giving serious thought to planting a new bed and making it 12x2ft.  The current 4x4 gets kind of tough to see into this time of the year.  Right now its tall and seeded and

looks like this and thicker.  Now that it is large and seeding and grown I wonder if we could wack it back like ya cut grass and let it grow again still plenty of warn nonths ahead I dont see why we couldn't get another growth spurt.  Any thoughts??

Cappy, maybe experiment with just a small section?  I think it would work for such a strong bed and your long season, but if all the regrowth is skinny it probably was not a good idea.

llama momma wrote:Yes it is good to let it bloom.  I try to leave the skinniest (thinner than a pencil diameter) asparagus grow and bloom.  Sometimes bigger ones slip by and I let those go also.  These stalks will collect the sun's energy and store it in the plant underground for next years harvest.  Sometimes the longest stems fall over or blow over. I let them be. I have a 4 foot tall chicken wire and green u-posts around the box to keep out critters and allows the extra tall stalks to lean on it instead of perhaps breaking.  The cheap fence set up is just wide enough to pull it open it and walk around the box to tend to it and pick out weeds. Asparagus does not compete very well with weeds. You might know parsley is compatible with it. A nice option if you like to get the most out the box. I tried it and parsley did nicely in there too.

Oooo, I love the parsley idea. Thank you so much for the info. Since asparagus is permanent, I'll start thinking about a pretty fence for it.

Cajun Cappy wrote:Maybe we leave too many fronds I really dont know.  Over the season we leave the thin ones and some get big fore we find em and the bed getts pretty thick.  very few weeds survive the inner bed and I kinda doubt parsley would.  We are giving serious thought to planting a new bed and making it 12x2ft.  The current 4x4 gets kind of tough to see into this time of the year.  Right now its tall and seeded and

looks like this and thicker.  Now that it is large and seeding and grown I wonder if we could wack it back like ya cut grass and let it grow again still plenty of warn nonths ahead I dont see why we couldn't get another growth spurt.  Any thoughts??

Omigosh, Cappy. I had no idea it could get that thick. I don't think that could happen here, since we do have a little bit of winter for it all to die back, but who knows? Tune in next spring for an update.

I started my patch when llama momma did hers, hers is doing better, I think I was so worried about planting deep enough that I over did it. But anyrate it is growing and spreading and we are eating from it. I have one female plant and I let the seeds drop last fall in hopes of more babies showing up this spring. I started that bed (4'x8') with a line of asparagus on along one side and strawberries along the other. Now the strawberries are almost across the bed and the asparagus is into the middle squares. Strawberries have shallow roots and asparagus are deep so they seem to do well together so far. If my patch got like Cappy's we wouldn't be able to pick the strawberries with out breaking stalks though, you want those flowering stalks to grow the root big and strong for next years crop.

Our asparagus if any thing grows too fast but we are too far south for strawberries.