Aah! Spring’s first fresh asparagus – delicious fresh from the garden, lightly steamed, and served with a little butter! Rich in B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, and iron, asparagus is often the first spring vegetable that you can harvest. Asparagus is a long-lived perennial, that can give you that fresh taste of spring for up to 20 years!
Spring's first fresh crop - Asparagus
You could start your asparagus can be planted from seed. However, caring for the small seedlings until they become established can be time consuming. Also, because the seeds are spaced a few inches apart, the developing crowns will have to be dug and transplanted to their permanent location in the garden after a year. So, one year of potential spear production is lost due to transplanting. Instead, start your asparagus patch with one or two-year-old crowns from a garden center or seed catalog.
Choose the new all-male hybrid asparagus varieties such as Jersey Giant, Jersey Prince, and Jersey Knight. These varieties produce spears only on male plants. Seeds produced on female plants will fall to the ground and become a seedling weed problem in your garden. Female plants also have to expend more energy to produce the seeds that decreases the yields of asparagus spears on those plants.
To plant your asparagus crowns in the spring, start by digging a trench that is 5-6 inches deep. For every 50 feet of row, add a pound of 0-46-0 triple superphosphate fertilizer or two pounds of 0-20-0 superphosphate fertilizer to the trench. Alternatively, you could have dug the trench the previous fall, and dug in lots of well rotted manure, compost, bone or blood meal, leaf mold, wood ashes, or a combination of several of these.
Next, toss the crowns into the trench, right on top of the fertilizer. The plants will grow well whether or not the roots are spread out. Place the crowns 18 inches apart, with five feet between rows. This will provide good air circulation for the plants and help prevent fungal diseases. Finally, backfill the trench to the original soil level, being careful to not compact the soil over the crowns.
There are conflicting theories on how asparagus crowns should be planted. Traditionally it was recommended to dig an 8-inch deep trench for the crowns, then carefully spread out the roots within the trench, refilling it a bit at a time as the plants grow.
Recent comparison studies have shown that it really isn’t necessary to gradually fill the trench or spread out the roots. Additionally, the deeper asparagus crowns are planted, the more the yield will be reduced.
Resist the temptation to sample the new asparagus spears the first year. The plants need this time to build their energy so they can produce well. The following year, harvest a small crop over a three-week period, and over a 4-6 week period the year after that. It is the third year after planting when you can continue to harvest for the full 6-8 week season.
Once harvesting is done, allow the plants to grow and keep their fern-like foliage through fall and winter. The foliage will catch snow that will provide moisture and insulation for the roots. Cut or mow the foliage in early spring before new growth begins to emerge. Alternatively, cut away the foliage in late fall, and add a top dressing of compost or well-rotted manure.
If you have poorly draining or clay soil, it would be better to plant your asparagus in a raised bed. It does not tolerate poor drainage. Asparagus is very drought tolerant and can usually grow without extra watering because properly planted, its roots go deep in the soil. However, if rainfall is insufficient when planting or afterwards, certainly irrigate the crowns. Otherwise the plants will become stressed and vigorous growth will be impeded.
