I was just wondering do I need to fertilize my aspergus. I bought crowns last year. It came up, the neighbor kid weed wacked in the fall. I have some fish emulsion would that work. Any help would be appreciated.
Fertilizing Asperagus
I need to know too Garf, I just bought 6 crowns..... II think your supposed to wack the last-year-crowns. So's you ok.
Asparagus have a big appetite, it is almost impossible to over fertilize. In the spring incorporate 2lbs of 10-10-10 per 100 sq. ft. into the the top 2 inches of the soil and repeat after harvest. Make sure PH is close to 7.0 to 7.2. And be sure you keep the weeds out. This works well here in Maryland and I'm still waiting for mine to poke through the mulch this spring good luck.
Thanks for the tips. I checked my ph and was dead on, and picked up some 10-10-10. I'll work that in tomorrow and top dress with used straw from the chicken yard, it has very little manure in it so it shouldn't be too hot. Ric
Asparagus has been the easiest crop of all time here in our little patch. No cultivation or fertilizer, just a little water and it has thrived. I got a couple dozen new crowns and dug up and replanted nine older ones which were stuck off in an out of the way place and.got little water. They were barely getting by. We have seven or eight five year old roots that give us a treat for about a month each spring. I messed up planting them and they are at least eighteen inches down. Next winter I'll dig them out and transplant them too.
This message was edited Mar 26, 2010 9:28 PM
Thanks for the reminder to fertilize mine! I ate a couple of spears straight from the garden last Friday. After this rain I am sure there are more to be had.
I have two beds and can hardly wait for them to bust thru. I've had one bed for 20 years and it's still going strong! I just fertilize with compost and keep a check on the PH.
My first bed has been going for thirty years or more. The second bed is in it's second year. I only use a organic low number fertilizer like 2-4-2. I mulch with leaves or spoiled hay as soon as the first heads show. If I mulch deep enough my first cutting will be white. I have about eighteen plants in a raised bed. The first half of the bed gave us all the wife and I could eat and some to blanch and freeze. I think the wood in the raised bed will rot and fall off before the production is near done working.
I got my fertilizer and scratched it in my asparagus bed and loosely mulched it with straw from the chicken yard. After it dries a little I'll mulch it again till I have 3-4"s on it. My bed is probably 10-15 years old but was neglected, way too long. My horseradish is up and going ballistic. Anyone know if it is too late to split it up?I have 1 large crown I'd like to quarter. If I feel well enough tomorrow, I hope to get my potato seed and some more drums to get ready. No peas or radish up yet but my onion sets are sprouting though. I still have a trellis to assemble and seed to start. Ric
Hey Ric..............go ahead and split it up cause I do not think you can kill it. There is one more important tid bit. I don't think you can kill it. LOL
Thanks Doc! If the floods ever recede. LOL Thinking of planting rice again this year or building an ark instead of a trellis. Ric
Ric..............I've been fighting off my second dose of pneumonia. Did not see until now that you and the bride are dealing with to much water. My few minutes a day until yesterday were very few on line. Getting into the last third of the antibiotics. Sleeping with one eye on the TV is about the best I can account for during the month of March. Sure hope this round of medicine settles the issue.
It is not that life has not be exciting. Some yeahoo backed into Betty's car broadsiding her in a parking lot. Got out being ever so sorrowfull, even called in the police for a report then went home and filed a charge against our company. As he was doing that we discovered his insurance did not even exist. The two insurance companies are duking it out. Our car is in the garage....which today is like the check being in the mail. Fun fun fun!
Geez doc, pneumonia and now without a car!! Have you been behaving yourself lately? (lol).
Ric you mentioned planting rice. I got some rice seed from Parks I'm going to try this year. It's black rice (at least the stems and leaves are) and I hope it takes the place of that mondo grass which is expensive.
We have flood waters up here too, but not as bad as RI and CT. Our problems up here seems to be small streams taking out roads. It's really getting to be like the old Down East saying goes "you can't get there from here"!
Doc, We are fortunate enough to live on top of the ridge, but with our heavy clay there is water everywhere. Where the soil has been amended it is draining so some work may be accomplished in a couple of days. I'm just getting over my second upper respiratory infection myself. It's been a bad season for me health wise. Ric
Fortunately we have had no water to deal with other than just plain soaking wet. It has dried out here reasonably well. Our daffs are in full bloom.
Since I will likely be doing very little due to health issues we have found a guy who really knows yard and gardening who will work in agreement with our needs. We have had him on board for two long days. He really looks like a keeper. This is good because a guy like that is not standing on every street corner.
We just started picking ours about 2 weeks ago.. This year its very scrawny. We want for rain.
Found an article... go here!
To view this article online: http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news5141.html
Asparagus: Architectural and edible
Author: Debra Levey Larson
Adding asparagus to a garden adds color and texture to the landscape, said University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Barbara Bates.
We have been harvesting some of our Asparagus. Not large amounts just enough for a meal or two. We put some of the tougher stems in the freezer for soup. Ric mulched the bed with straw and a layer of leaf compost. The garden as a whole is looking pretty good so far. Holly
Ours have been yummy, but not many.. guess Im going to have to don my feathers and do a rain dance.
Well, after complaining that our aspargus must have died during the winter - it's now producing about a pound per day.
So nice to be able to walk past the ones in the supermarket at $3.99LB :)
I fertlized ours on March 6th with an organic mix that I purchased from Territorial Seed
http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1639/22
I use a healthy application of Fertrell 4-2-4 my old standard standby.....both early Spring and Mid Season and if I have any excess a fall application of trace minerals will not hurt a thing either. Asparagus as a plant is a down right hog. Some years I lace in a treatment of earth worm casts along with some raw manures. Left over compost even if it may not be the best is a good addition. In other words you can feed the dickens out of your asparagus but keep it organic.
I too saw asparagus in the big box store at an asking price of nearly four dollars a pound. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy your easy to grow asparagus. That being said the big box produce has to be harshly trimmed up where in you loose another twenty five percent which further raises the cost closer to five bucks a pound.
We love creamed asparagus over home fries, toast, muffins and biscuits. This is not to overlook tender steamed and buttered asparagus with no blending into or with other foods.
Right about now, a book of 1001 Ways to Cook Asparagus would come in handy.
Yesterday, I stir-fried it.
We really like pizza laced with Italian spicy sausage, asparagus, onion and new little red potatoes. Yes we use a pizza sauce too.
YUM!
I steam asparagus and then put fat free Greek yoghourt on it. I also like it stir fried with lots of other veggies.
I'll have to try it on pizza :) I purchased some whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's the other day and am axious to try it this weekend.