Wednesday 7 January 2015

Starting to think about Asparagus

Yes, it's a nice thought...


But at present fresh Asparagus from the garden is still a distant dream. Nonetheless I am already doing what I can to ensure the best possible harvest.

The Asparagus bed is looking a bit forlorn at present, with the stubble from last year's fern sticking up here and there amongst the fallen red berries of the overhanging Cockspur Thorn tree, and little clumps of moss beginning to form. Time for some maintenance!


The stubble is of course only the remains of the Asparagus that I did NOT harvest last Summer. You always need to leave some of the spears to mature into fern (the plant's leaves) in order to build up energy for next time. I don't cut the fern right down to ground level, but leave a few inches so that I can see where the plants are.


Asparagus plants increase in size by sending out subterranean roots, from the nodes of which arise the "spears" or new young shoots of the plant - the bits we eat, in other words. Of course, the roots don't spread out uniformly from the central crown, and the plants in my bed look as if they have shuffled around! I know that two of my original 10 plants died, and I replaced them during 2013 with two bought from a Garden Centre. Mistake! As soon as I unpacked them I saw that the two new ones were very poor specimens that had been kept out of the ground for far too long. One died soon after planting, and the other has so far only just managed to survive. Last year it put up two very spindly shoots. For this reason there is still a significant gap in the bed (middle part, left).


I don't know what to do about this. Maybe I'll buy another small batch of crowns and try again to fill the gap, but Sod's Law says that in so doing I would be bound to damage some of the existing mature crowns. I'll think further on this matter.

In the meantime, this is what I have done:

1. Manually removed all the bigger clumps of moss and weeds
2. Sprinkled a good few handfuls of pelleted "Growmore" general-purpose fertiliser on to the soil surface.
3. Cultivated (broken up) the surface of the soil, to incorporate the fertiliser, and watered it in.

I am currently toying with the idea of replacing the timber of ALL my raised beds, so I am putting off spreading compost on the Asparagus bed until such time as the replacement takes place or gets cancelled. It is however my intention to put a good layer of home-made compost on the Asparagus "soon"....

My Asparagus did pretty well last year, and I think one of the reasons for this was that I was more generous with water than I usually am. My soil is very sandy and doesn't retain water very well, so constant attention to irrigation is necessary. If we get a dry Spring this year, I will certainly be out there with the hosepipe keeping the Asparagus hydrated.

12 comments:

  1. I hope your asparagus rewards you well for the care and attention you're giving it.

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  2. I hope that you went back and complained or emailed them.

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    1. No, I didn't. Of course I didn't know when I planted the crowns that they would not survive / do well. and anyway, it didn't seem worth it for just a couple of quid. Sometimes complaining just causes too much stress!

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    2. I find it more stressful not to complain -nicely of course - this way companies know when things go wring and often are pleased ti receive feedback - well that;s what they sat anyway,

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  3. I hope you get a good crop again this year. We will be picking ours for the first time so am much looking forward to that.

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  4. I wish my asparagus would grow well. I'm pretty sure it is getting watered fine. I don't know why half my plants died last year.

    How old are is the wood in your raised beds? And what kind?

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    1. Daphne, most of the wood is about 5 years old, though two beds are probably about 7 years old. It is heat-treated Pine.

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  5. I must say the timber on the asparagus bed is beginning to look a little tired Mark, new timber today even treated doesn`t seem to last as long as it did years ago

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    1. I agree. I don't think timber-merchants season their timber very well any more.

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  6. I'm hoping to start an asparagus bed this year but am thinking that I will try growing it from seed instead of using crowns. I had previously heard that growing asparagus from seed usually resulted in healthier/better plants overall as good crown quality is hit or miss - as you obviously experienced yourself! Bek reminded me about using seeds when responding to my comment in one of her posts: http://www.beksbackyard.com/2014/10/how-to-store-asparagus.html . The down side is that it will delay harvesting for one year, but considering that you will be harvesting for many, many years to come (hopefully!), I think the year wait is a small price to pay for better harvests down the road.

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  7. I've grown new asparagus plants from sowing the red berries. You need to leave them for a long time to germinate, probably those laying out on the ground all winter are perfect for sowing under cover now (UK early spring). Once they get going the plants grow quite quickly and then you can select the ones that look like they might produce the best spears. I eventually lost my seedlings a couple of years later by leaving them in pots in very cold weather (I thought it was safer for precious plants in pots than in open ground on the allotment !), but if you are more careful to protect them in the ground or a frame, I'm sure it's a good way to get extra supplies cheaply. I've tried crowns several times over the years, but the quality seems very poor and they struggle to survive on an allotment.

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  8. How nice to get out an putter about in the garden. we are currently at -22C and the garden beds are solid!

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