Subject: Asparagus - Help Please

From: [email-masked] (Julie_damen)
Date: 22 Mar 1995 13:43:32 -0800

How do you grow it?  Where do you get seeds?  What can you tell me???

Thanks for the help in advance!

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From: [email-masked] (Chris Coplan)
Date: 23 Mar 1995 18:27:50 GMT

> Thanks for the help in advance!
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Get 'crowns' which are essentially  a root of a plant.  I got 'Supermale'
from Miller's catalog, and it grows GREAT.  This is my 2nd year (first
harvesting year) and it has just started to come up (I'm in Maidens, VA -
central VA).  I've read that when you start harvesting, you should leave
one stalk per crown grow to maturity, and you will be able to harvest
spears for an extra two wks (sometime into June).  You let spears after
that grow to maturity to feed the crown for next seasons crop.

Chris
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Chris Coplan)
Date: 23 Mar 1995 18:27:50 GMT

Chris
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Christine Owens)
Date: 25 Mar 1995 15:43:37 GMT

>Thanks for the help in advance!

You don't want to grow asparagus from seed; it has a very
low germination rate, and half the plants will be female.
You can buy asparagus crowns from a lot of different
sources.  It likes sandy, very well drained soil.

Chris Owens

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From: [email-masked] (sonny hays-eberts)
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 1995 10:14:19 -0700

> How do you grow it?  Where do you get seeds?  What can you tell me???

it's quicker to grow from two year root crowns instead of seeds. asparagus
likes rich, well drained soil. to plant crowns, dig a trench about 12"
deep, and work in plenty of organic matter and some composted manure. make
mounds about 8" tall and 12" apart in the trench and place one crown on
each mound, working the roots so they drape evenly around the mound and the
peak of the crown is about 4" deep. cover. it's not easy work. i put in one
40' trench a year for three years, and i'm glad i'm not planning on adding
more. :) 

you shouldn't harvest asparagus in the first three years of it's life.
buying two year old crowns (which are fairly cheap, 12 for a dollar or two)
saves you two years, as you need only wait one more year. your first year's
harvest should also be a light one. the length of time you should harvest
is debatable. once you stop harvesting, let the spears develop for the rest
of the season. i pull out my old brown ones in march - let the plants use
them as long as possible to pull in as much energy as they can to get
through the winter. here in the soggy willamette valley my spears are just
beginning to peak up from the soil. 

i also add a thick mulch of composted chicken manure to each row in
january. asparagus is a heavy feeder. 

for a cool trick, you can do as they do in germany and continue to mulch
the spears as they grow, keeping them constantly away from the sun. you'll
end up with delicate white spears.

-- 
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]