# growing asparagus



## nctoni (Nov 7, 2003)

So last year I planted some three year old asparagus crowns. I planted them about this time and just let them go all summer, fall, winter and now spring. I just went out to see them and I don't know what to do. They are tall, feathery, about four feet tall. Do I cut those feathery things back to about a inch above ground? Then new spears will come? Those I can harvest and eat now? Do I keep them mulched? With what if so? Any guidance will be appreciated. Thanks yall.


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

The first year after planting 2 or 3 year old crowns, don't cut any. Let them go all summer. Yes, they get tall.

Next spring you can cut a few spears, but not all. Let the rest go all summer.

The third spring after planting, cut all you want to.


----------



## MoBookworm1957 (Aug 24, 2015)

Can you plant in whiskey barrel?


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Asparagus is a long term (multi-year) effort. Mine has been producing for about 10 years.

I would not plant it in a whiskey barrel. The asparagus will be bearing long after the barrel is deteriorated.


----------



## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

You missed your opportunity to pick the spears. The first year after planting 2 - 3 yo crowns, you can cut the spears for a short time -- no more than 2 weeks. Then let them grow. I gather yours started growing and you didn't realise it? Did you cut down the old growth in winter after they had died? If not, they would have hidden the spears. 
If I were you, I'd look around and see if any new spears are coming up and cut a few when they are 6 - 8" tall -- but not many and for not more than a couple of weeks.


----------



## MoBookworm1957 (Aug 24, 2015)

NRA_guy said:


> Asparagus is a long term (multi-year) effort. Mine has been producing for about 10 years.
> 
> I would not plant it in a whiskey barrel. The asparagus will be bearing long after the barrel is deteriorated.


Thank you for the information.


----------



## nctoni (Nov 7, 2003)

Belfrybat said:


> You missed your opportunity to pick the spears. The first year after planting 2 - 3 yo crowns, you can cut the spears for a short time -- no more than 2 weeks. Then let them grow. I gather yours started growing and you didn't realise it? Did you cut down the old growth in winter after they had died? If not, they would have hidden the spears.
> If I were you, I'd look around and see if any new spears are coming up and cut a few when they are 6 - 8" tall -- but not many and for not more than a couple of weeks.


Right, I guess I did miss it as I did not go out to look at them until I went to till for my vegetable garden I am planting now. I have not cut anything off of them since they started growing even during the winter. So, do I need to go cut those tall ferny plants now? Thanks


----------



## mmoetc (Oct 9, 2012)

Don't cut now. This year's growth is what puts energy into next year's plants. Do your best to control grass and weeds in the planting as they compete for nutrients. Mow down the dead growth in the winter and look for the spears early next spring.


----------



## nctoni (Nov 7, 2003)

mmoetc said:


> Don't cut now. This year's growth is what puts energy into next year's plants. Do your best to control grass and weeds in the planting as they compete for nutrients. Mow down the dead growth in the winter and look for the spears early next spring.


thank you for that


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Even with the best of care, an asparagus bed won't hit its stride for several years. But once that happens, the bed will produce an abundant crop of spears spring after spring for at least the next 20 to 30 years.

Asparagus plants will not tolerate weed competition. Even though asparagus can sometimes be spotted growing in a ditch among thick grass, the domesticated varieties won't survive.

If grasses or other perennial weeds get established in an asparagus bed it is almost impossible to reclaim the planting. So keep your asparagus bed well-mulched from the start, using shredded leaves or straw. For the first couple years, weed often and carefully — asparagus roots are near the surface and can be damaged by weeding tools. Don't interplant other vegetables in the same bed. Asparagus hates competition of any kind.

Originally asparagus grew in swamps and wet places, so maintaining consistent soil moisture is important for good production.

To keep your asparagus bed productive, don't be greedy. The first year after planting, you can harvest a few spears from each plant. Pick for about two weeks and then stop so the fronds can unfold and begin feeding the root system. Harvest for three weeks the next year, and four to six weeks after that. Pick too much, and your plants will not be able to develop the strong root system and energy reserves they'll need to produce an abundant crop of spears the following season.

Spears should be harvested when they are 5" to 7" high and before the tips begin to loosen. Once the tips loosen, the spears become tough and fibrous.

After the harvesting season allow the spears to develop naturally. They will grow 4' to 6' feet high, with lacy, light-green foliage. Keep the bed weeded, mulched and watered. The healthier the fronds, the more energy the plants will have for next year's harvest. When fall arrives, the fronds will turn yellow. At this time, it's generally best to cut the fronds about an inch above ground level and remove them from the area. This will help keep pests, such as the asparagus beetle, from over wintering.

A raised bed is a good place to grow asparagus too.

 Al


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

^ That's exactly how I do it.

And we have enjoyed fresh asparagus from my 24' x 4' bed for years.

But for some reason, this spring all of my asparagus was thin little sprouts and it came in rather sporadically rather than at one time. So we did not eat much. It is now 4 or 5 feet tall and past the eating stage. (I set some tall posts around the bed, and I surround the bed with twine every summer to keep the tall fronds from lying down.)

I attribute it to the weird spring weather we had this year: unusually hot early, then really cold, then hot again, then cold.

I can understand why the asparagus was confused.


----------



## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Don't cut any green ferns now. But you should have dead and dried stalks left over from last year -- pull them out gently. Then mulch your bed with manure and compost. Bagged if you don't have your own. Asparagus is a heavy feeder.


----------



## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

Are you guys talk about the thin green stuff or the good old thick white ones?
Cause on the white ones you should never cut more than 6 times per plant, after the 7th it gives up to get to the sun and dies...
Never did Green so far...not my idea of Asparagus


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Well, I was talking about the good old thick green asparagus---the kind that God intended for us to eat.


----------



## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

You are probably not from Europe...smile...


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Yeah, I'm a ******* Southerner, but according to my DNA most of my ancestors came from Germany and Ireland---but that was in the 1700s. The rest of my ancestors were already here, greeting the strange looking white people arriving from Europe. 

Seriously, do they really grow and eat white asparagus in Europe?

I've never seen it.


----------



## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

Yes we do...and it is a pain in the neck to harvest it...since you are building humps to force the root to grow long time in dark and than you go out every morning before sunrise and check the piles for peaking tips...and those you cut way down on the hump to get a long white and thick one out of the ground before it touches sunlight and gets green...
Example for a kind of typical German Asparagus meal: 
http://www.karls.de/assets/images/4/spargel-teller-holz-949016b4.jpg
And a German asparagus field:
https://www.swr.de/-/id=17275408/property=full/bdpih2/Spargel Feld, Ernte.jpg

Pictures dont belong to me and are just as examples...creds go to poster/photograph and i will take out if someones rights are touched/violated...


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Thanks. Sounds like a pain. 

Is the flavor any different from green asparagus?


----------



## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

How do you describe taste!? Besides words like delicious? Nutty? 
I just ordered myself Seeds from the Sort that was grown at my home city...


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Asparagus seeds? That's a long-term effort.

Most folks plant 2-year old crowns---but, of course, the only commercially available crowns are probably not the kind you want.


----------



## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

Hello...

Yup...the Day i will harvest whit asparagus will be a few moons ahead from now...that's for sure...
If you come from a different country you are surprised, what you are able to assimilate from your new world, and what you cant...
And i really tried a few things, but for some i assume you have to grow up with it...
Good Example's are:
Icing...holy crap...that is so sweet and useless to a German
Peanut butter...same deal...
Green asparagus...nice but just nice
Cakes...and so on...


----------



## NRA_guy (Jun 9, 2015)

Icing . . . useless??? That is heresy!

To Southerners, cakes and cookies are nothing more than a carrier for the icing.

We _would_ just eat the icing, but folks would talk about us.


----------



## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Asparagus is green, but if you hill it like described above it is white since photosynthesis doesn't occur. I much prefer the green, but I've heard the white described a "buttery". To me it just has less taste than the green.


----------



## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

NRA_guy said:


> Well, I was talking about the good old thick green asparagus---the kind that God intended for us to eat.


Thick?!?! No way, too woody and tough for me. I want fresh thin stalks.


----------

