If you have acid soil, it's best to add lime. Planting out. When it comes to planting, dig a trench 15cm deep. Much deeper than this and the yield will be reduced; much shallower, and your asparagus will produce thinner spears. Throw in a fertiliser high in phosphorus, such as blood and bone, which is beneficial for root growth during the plant's establishment.
Plant your crowns about 40cm apart rows should be 1. If sowing seeds, grow in containers the first year and transplant in the ground when they reach about 10cm high.
Let your plants grow. An occasional feed with seaweed or comfrey tea or a fertiliser high in potassium can be beneficial while crowns are establishing, otherwise sit back and relax. Avoid harvesting from your plants in the first year, as they need to suck up as much strength as they can. Let the spears open up into the feathery fern stage. While they are still green, they are feeding their crowns, and strong crowns are the secret to success.
In the second year, only harvest a few spears to enable the crowns to continue building up strength. At this stage picking a few spears will encourage more buds, making them more productive the following year. Each asparagus plant needs 18 square inches of space, and asparagus is challenging to grow and must establish itself for three years before you can start enjoying your harvest. However, if you are up for the challenge, your asparagus will come back year after year, offering you fresh spears to enjoy all season.
Once you have decided how many asparagus plants to grow, select a location that gets at least eight hours of sun each day, and make sure the plants won't eventually be crowded out or have the sun blocked by trees or other plants you are considering, advises the University of New Hampshire.
While you won't be planting asparagus in the fall, it is important to prepare the soil. Asparagus likes well-drained, loose, fertile soil. Till the ground at least 1 foot deep and work in plenty of manure or compost. Most people opt to purchase asparagus crowns. These must be planted as soon as you receive them, so planning your order and preparing your soil is important. If you prefer, you can start seeds in pots indoors about six to eight weeks before the last frost, advises the University of New Hampshire.
They grew 11 different varieties and six of them got Awards of Garden Merit. One of them was 'Connover's Colossal', an old Victorian variety, still available and still good. The rest were all-male kinds: the Dutch varieties 'Backlim' and 'Gijnlim', French 'Dariana', 'Guelph Millenium', a Canadian variety bred especially for its tolerance to cold, and the handsome dark 'Stewart's Purple'.
As far as Bunyard was concerned, the size of an asparagus spear depended not on its breeding, but on the way you grew it. But 30 plants set out at that spacing would take up the whole of most modern gardens. We have to be meaner. Asparagus grows wild all over Europe and has been cultivated ever since the word 'epicure' was invented. In 77AD, Pliny the Elder was already writing about the complicated ways in which growers produced the pale, blanched stems that the Romans preferred.
That's how you still find it grown in Switzerland and Belgium. In Britain at least, wild asparagus is commonest in sand dunes and other well-drained sites near the sea.
In the garden it likes similarly well-drained sandy soils, but not hungry ones. Pile on well-rotted manure or compost. Dig in some grit if the soil's sticky. Water must be able to drain away from the crowns. If they're permanently soggy, they rot. You can grow asparagus from seed, which is certainly the cheapest method, but it takes time. Most gardeners buy crowns which may be from one to three years old.
The youngest crowns are cheapest and transplant most easily, though you will have to wait longer before picking a crop. Musser J. Musser Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile.
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