Re: asparagus
Hi, Valerie. I planted a row of asparagus plants in my raised beds in
1996. Buy 3-year-olds if you can get them; they're worth the extra money
because, once they've grown a full season in situ, you can begin light
harvests the next year and full ones in their year 5 of existence.
The directions that came with my plants have worked well. Dig a trench
about 18 inches deep and 8 inches wide. Pour in lots of compost and other
organic-type goodies to fill in HALF the depth of the planting trench.
Place each asparagus crown, with its roots splayed out, about 10 inches
apart in the trench. Cover the plants with another 2-3 inches ONLY of soil
and compost mix. Water thoroughly and keep watering during dry periods.
Do NOT fill in the trench to its top. Every year, fill it in a little
more. In about 3 years, things will be leveled out.
Voila--you have now planted an asparagus bed that will produce food for 100
YEARS.
I did not realize when I started my row of asparagus that the ferny plants
get really huge. Like 6 feet tall and at least 3 feet from front to back,
each. So leave 'em plenty of room in order to keep good air circulation
through the canopy.
You'll do your harvesting in late May or early June up in upstate New York
(we get spears in April and early May down here in DC, zone 7 land). Cut
off the spears at or just above ground level using a knife or sharp
scissors. You can break them off, but that sometimes tears the stem
belowground, allowing pathogens easy entry.
Don't cut off all the eatable spears. After harvesting is pretty much
done, let your plants go all ferny and huge. The photosynthesizing leaves
will be packing the root structures with goodies for next year's spears. I
don't even bother cutting off the vegetative growth over the winter, but
you might prefer not to look at the stems.
Higher yields of food product can be expected from the newest varieties of
asparagus, which in theory do not set seeds. This is what I planted in
'96, but mine DO make seeds....
Of course, one can grow asparagus from those seeds, but it seems to take
forever.
Good luck and keep us posted.
--Janet
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