Subject: Re: Asparagus - Help Please

From: [email-masked] (Dick Gilman)
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 15:36:26 GMT

First I live in zone 7 in Raleigh/wakeforest NC.  I put my asparagus
bed in last year, Dug a 2 foot deep by 6foot circle/square pit
filled it with compost etc gee that was fun in this clay soil. 
During the winter my "aspargus pit" turned into an "asparagus
pond"!!!!!  The surronding clay soil acted like a giant pond and
the whole thing sat in water until I dug a hole to act as a drain. 
This spring I had to put in a drain pipe to get rid of all the
water from the rains!!!!  Hopefully the asparagus is still alive
and did not drown in the water!!!  It did come up last year but I
did not get any I will post later on to let you know how it goes.

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From: [email-masked] (CT)
Date: 30 Mar 1995 15:22:58 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Dick Gilman) says:
>
>First I live in zone 7 in Raleigh/wakeforest NC. (Snip)
>my "aspargus pit" turned into an "asparagus
Good idea you had; putting the drain in. 

Story:  Several years ago I bought a bunch of asparagus roots. One 
thing led to another, and then black flies, a godawful heat wave...
The aspar roots just withered away.  Sometime in July, I took the 
molding mass and pitched it into my compost heap.  (I don't "cook" my
compost, but just let it decay and breed weeds -- somebody's got to do
it).  The next spring while turning over the compost, low and behold, 
there was an *asparagus* shoot. I ate it, of course.  But that got me
to thinking.  Up until that time I had been somewhat intimidated 
(?daunted) by the "work" required to grow asparagus.  No longer.

I planted the roots of that I'd discarded, then bought some Jersey Knight
roots and planted them.  Not even deep (gravel-fill soil, with 5 years
of compost, horse manure etc. mixed into top 10 -14 inches). I'd read
that you don't really need to bury deeply.  The second year I already 
had large, finger sized spears.  The third year I ate most of them.

I've seen asparagus survive (maybe not thrive) in what would appear to 
be pretty inhospitable conditions.  Salt water (ocean) w/ clayey soil 
among them. (I mean that from time to time, esp. spring and fall, this
particular bed was inundated w/ salt water.)

(I fertilize mine, although I don't know if you're "supposed" to)

Good luck.  I'm betting, with the drain, you'll be in spears. 

CT [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (CT)
Date: 30 Mar 1995 15:22:58 GMT

CT [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (sonny hays-eberts)
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 10:46:01 -0700

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (CT) wrote:

> >pond"!!!!! 
[snip]

> (I fertilize mine, although I don't know if you're "supposed" to)

yes.

> Good luck.  I'm betting, with the drain, you'll be in spears. 

i thought that wild aspargus grew primarily in riverbed banks (so some wild
ones should spend part of winter underwater), and that as a fern, it's
pretty tolerent of moisture. i like mine enough to pamper it. it's grown
through some periods of neglect, but it does much better when carefully
tended.

-- 
like the forest's fight for sunlight, it takes root in every tree
pulled upwards by the magnet, believing they are free
         -- genesis

sonny hays-eberts
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 31 Mar 95 00:07:28 -0600

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (sonny hays-eberts) writes

> through some periods of neglect, but it does much better when carefully

Asparagus is a tough critter, but around here, you're more likely to 
find wild asparagus in a fencerow at the top of a ditch than in the
bottom of the ditch.  And asparagus is a flowering plant (a seed plant),
a member of the Liliaceae, the lily family, not a fern (which produce
spores, not seeds).

When we grew asparagus at home, the asparagus bed always got the
biggest load of composted manure.  It tends to be a fairly "heavy
feeder".

Kay Klier  [email-masked]