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Elgin and borrowing Mom's asparagus roots

Elgin Freeman noted spindly results from his mom's 10-year-old asparagus bed
but is considering the transplantation of some of these minimal producers to
a new bed he wants to get going this year.

I don't think this plan will fail for any biological reason.  But the fact
is, asparagus breeding took one of those Chinese Great Leaps Forward about 3
years ago when Rutgers University plant breeders released new lines of
all-male asparagus to replace the old standby, Martha Washington.  Evidently
Martha has a fair amount of female asparagus plantings in every group, and
the chix do not produce nearly as many spears as the guy plants do.

You can still buy Martha Washington, and that's almost certainly what
Elgin's mother is growing.  But who'd want to?

The nearly-all-male varieties from Rutgers are Jersey Knight and Jersey
King.  No, I don't know the difference between these two or which is better.
[Jersey Knight has purplish tips on those little triangle-like protuberances
on the stalks, but JKing may, too.]   I just know I'm heading toward this
gang rather than buying the cheaper Marthas, which are still on sale in some
catalogs.

To revivify Mom's bed, Elgin should assess the soil fertility and follow
whatever instructions the asparagus gurus suggest.  But a very real
possibility is just that Mom inadvertently got stuck with a high proportion
of females, all of which are behaving normally for female asparagi.


--Janet
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Janet Wintermute             jwintermute@ids2.idsonline.com
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