As the growing season goes on, continue to remove weeds. During the first three years, plants should be fertilized in the spring with a balanced fertilizer , , or at a rate of 2 pounds per square feet. Starting in the fourth year, apply the same amount of fertilizer, but wait to apply it until you are done harvesting June or July. This is where patience comes into play: harvesting too much too early will lead to weak plants and lower yields down the road.
Harvest spears when they are five to eight inches tall. You can do this by either cutting or snapping. This is how Asparagus is usually harvested commercially.
When snapping spears, grab them near the base and bend them towards the ground until they snap. Like spring bulbs, the foliage of asparagus helps generate energy for the following year. Asparagus contains aspragusic acid, which is broken down into sulfur-containing compounds by your body; it is believed this is what causes smelly urine. Learn more from the University of Utah.
Asparagus photo: " asparagus " CC BY 2. Want to get notified when new Good Growing posts are available? Skip to main content. How to successfully grow asparagus in your garden. Posted by. There should still be a small trench slightly below ground level. As the plant sprouts and grows, slowly fill in the trench until the soil is all at ground level. This process allows deeper roots to establish.
Water plants regularly to keep the soil moist. Cut back on watering during harvest season. Control weeds in the garden as asparagus may be choked out, especially during the first couple of years after planting.
At the end of the year, allow the plant to fully die back before cutting the plant down to ground level. Each spring, apply fertilizer to keep the soil fertile.
After three years, your asparagus is finally ready to harvest. When spears grow to about 6 to 8 inches tall and are at least the circumference of a pencil, you can snap off the spear at ground level.
Be sure not to pull the spears, but you can cut them if you prefer. Limit the first harvest to two weeks and then allow the fern to grow for the rest of the year. But be prepared, this is no ordinary vegetable crop.
Asparagus has a colorful history and seductive personality. And it is probably the most demanding vegetable there is to get started. They look like a strange sea creature with roots for tentacles and a head in the middle where the spears sprout. The dormant crowns are available at local garden centers for a brief window in early spring, after the ground thaws, but before the crowns start sprouting. Some growers keep asparagus crowns in their walk-in cooler to prolong dormancy so southern gardeners running late on the garden season have something to plant.
Female asparagus plants produce pretty red berries in fall, but they make far fewer spears. Ten crowns will fit in a 4-byfoot bed and are generally enough to supply a family of four. Try to time your purchase so the asparagus crowns can go in the ground without delay. If you have to store the crowns for more than a day or two, place them in a bucket of moist sand in a basement or other cool environment until you are ready to plant.
Asparagus likes rich, well-drained, non-acidic soil. For best results, copious quantities of soil amendments should be incorporated into the planting bed to provide long-term fertility. In the third year, increase the harvest period to two weeks and in the fourth and subsequent years you can harvest all the spears that emerge over a six-week period. Unharvested spears will unfurl into a lacy canopy of foliage about 3 or 4 feet tall by early summer.
Allowing the stalks to grow each year is necessary for maintaining a strong root system — making it possible for the asparagus to come back year after year with bigger and bigger spears.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. I want to get them into the ground.. Sproutng tge asparagus seeds was simple…working out what to do with seedlings is more problematic? I planted 20 crowns 4 weeks ago, did it exact to textbook instructions.
When should I expect to see any growth?
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