My Pride & Joy! or "It's a Jungle Out There!"

Hi,
I just wanted to share my pride & joy, my gus beds. I had always heard it was hard to grow and propagate but have found both are not true. There is a total of 3 raised beds here, one being 4 years old and the other 2 being two years old. We got about 5 lbs of gus this year and I have germinated some seeds in my greenhouse but also have some babies in the beds that have started themselves.

I tried to spread the original bed out a bit but found it impossible to dig through the crowns, so I left well enough alone. I can see though that based on the way they propagate raised beds are probably not the best way to grow them, I may plant some crowns in rows. I have about 12 baby crowns in trays that are now 7 months old and have to get them in a bed or the garden soon. These are Jersey Giant and Jersey Knight.

Another pic

One More

I posted the same pic twice , sorry here is the other one.

Did you harvest any of this ?
It looks terribly thick.

I've been growing asparagus for 6 years. 3 years ago we started a new bed just by tilling up a spot in our garden and dropping the seeds in. We were able to harvest a few this year, next year definitely.

CountryGardens: Our beds look exactly like Susan's and we harvested for 2 months this year. Just happy, lush plants.:)

Yes, I harvested lots! The thick one is the bed I tried to seperate a bit but I just cant get a fork through to dig them up. I read that you can dig up crowns and divide them but alas I cannot get to them. I may try again in the Fall. No way I getting through that jungle now.

Thanks Mel; they are happy, I got some huge spears out of that bed this year, I hope to get to the point where I can sell some at the farmers market. I absolutely love growing gus! I worked for many supermarkets and when I see people buying it for 4.99 a lb I just cringe. :(

What part of it is the asparagus?

Oh, I know what you mean about $4.99 lb and it never tastes like fresh picked homegrown.

Here's a picture of my bed.

Cajun: If you don't pick the spear of asparagus it grows quickly into this fern like plant. What you see are many many spears left to grow into plants. This is how they rejuvenate for the next years picking.

Wow Mel! Yours is beautiful too! I wish I had mine planted in a row like yours. I liked the beds when they were smaller and also cause I wanted to give them "perfect" soil so I built raised beds for them. I still like that I can add soil or mulch or whatever they need each Fall. Do you bone meal yours?

So, you just look under those big fern like parts and cut some of the smaller shoots to eat? How log does it take them to get that tall and how many do you have to allow to get like that to keep the bed going?

Cajun that is a good question, I have wondered that too? How many of them do you have to let turn to fern? Cause seems to me I could have been eating alot more gus!

Mine are in rows about 4 feet apart. Clumps are about 30 apart in the row. Up here we get the first spears about May 5. We cut every one that shows up until about now.
A lady at our market cuts until July 1. She has a half acre of it.
Once we quit cutting, the spears grow into ferns very fast. We leave them there until next spring & remove them as soon as you can get in there without mud.
We don't cut any spears until the 3rd year. Then do it easy. Every year you can take more.
Cut them when under 8" to 12" tall. They will get hard & woody if you allow it to get bigger.

Boy, it only sells for $2.48 a pound at the super market here. We charge $2.00 for a 12 oz bunch. That is enough to make a nice meal for 2 people.

Bernie

I've never grown them and I did not realize you had to have such a big spot dedicated to them in order to keep them producing. Heck, I didn't know they got anywhere near that size. I guess I thought they only got as big as the can they come packed in. LOL

I've only eaten asparagus one time. How do you cook it?

I cut mine in fall and use the fern to mulch the strawberries.

We leave them to catch snow & keep it from freezing out.

I leave them till Spring too. I wish I could seperate them and put them in rows now. Anyone know how t accomplish this feat?

I steam mine or saute it. Serve it with pasta and parm, asparagus on toast, steamed with butter s&p. Gads it is good. It is worth the space if you can find somewhere to put it.

Bernie, that's exactly what we did. Bought 3 year old crowns and then each year harvested a little longer.

Tilton: Do you cut your ferns after the first freeze? Seems to me you would get volunteer asparagus plants growing from the seeds that are dropped. Does that happen? I have a few volunteers growing around my yard. Most in places I don't want (like the middle of my iris bed). The buggers are like weeds, can't kill em.

Susan: I like to just snap em and eat em raw occasionally. yum

I was out looking at my plants a few days ago and I had asparagus beetle larva on them. I pinched them to death (with gloves ewwww) but I might have to get the Sevin out.

I have the all-male variety, so there aren't seeds. I wait till they are all dead and brown before cutting them. Then I use them to mulch their own bed for the winter and the strawberries.

All male huh? Learn something everyday.

How do any of you keep your weeds out? I have wire grass growing all in mine and I'm too lazy to sit and hand pull every darn piece.

I have violets always coming up in mine.

From what I've seen, most of the asparagus sold these days seems to be the all-male kind.


This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 1:43 PM

Most folks have moved to the Jersey varieties of asparagus which are almost entirely male. That way you aren't messing around with seeds.

I'm still surprised to see Martha Washington at the nurseries as it's really fallen out of favor do to the seeds and 40-60% less productivity than Jersey xx.

My understanding is you buy and plant 2 year old crowns. You just let them go your 1st year (their 3rd year) to ferns. Then the 4th year, you can harvest for 2 weeks, then let them go. Then the 5th year, you can harvest for 4 weeks, then let them go. Then starting the 6th year you can harvest pretty much as much as you want until they start getting woody.

During the summer, the ferns grow quickly so should shade out any weeds. I believe they are cut back after the first frost in the fall, and then mulched heavily until spring.

When asparagus is really going, I've heard you can almost sit and watch it
grow. Stalks grow 6 inches overnight so it must be picked every day or it will go to ferns.

An established asparagus bed which is properly maintained and fertilized every year can easily produce for 20 years or more.

If any of this is wrong, please correct me. I saw some very general asparagus questions and this is what I know. There's lots I don't. ;)

This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 1:11 PM

That is onf the reasons I like the raised beds, the weeds are less and much easier to pull out. I weed about 4 times a year. I bought all males but got one female in the mix and am glad now cause I take the seeds in Fall and germinate them on my heat mat in GH over the Winter. I have 12 baby crowns that I am planting this week. I am hoping to sell crowns starting next year as well as gus.

I do not like Jersey Giant the spears get too thick. Jersey Knight is really nice. Those are the only 2 varieities I have

I planted 30 crowns this Spring, but lost a few to some really lousy weather (torrential rains, and loads of it). I have 20 plants that survived the deluge and have grown ferns. I'm thinking I'll fill in the spaces next Spring and just have a third of the bed one year behind, which after 3 or 4 years will mean nothing.

True Jeff. I found that the original spacing was not enough so you might want to just move a couple of the ones that made it and give them all some room.
Congrats, you will love them. it is an awesome thing...perrenial vegetables!

"Feldon wrote: My understanding is you buy and plant 2 year old crowns. You just let them go your 1st year (their 3rd year) to ferns. Then the 4th year, you can harvest for 2 weeks, then let them go. Then the 5th year, you can harvest for 4 weeks, then let them go. Then starting the 6th year you can harvest pretty much as much as you want until they start getting woody.

When asparagus is really going, I've heard you can almost sit and watch it grow. Stalks grow 6 inches overnight so it must be picked every day or it will go to ferns."

This is exactly what we did when I first bought my crowns. But I have no idea what kind they are. I was wandering around a nursery, saw these for sale and decided to buy them. It was an impulse buy. I tend to plant something unique in my garden or yard every year. Last year it was peanuts, this year cotton. That year it happened to be asparagus. Fortunately my husband likes my wacky impulsiveness, I think. So I have plants that go to seed and in turn lots of volunteers. Some stalks have become quite large, but they are still just as tender. The only time my stalks get woody is when they sit in the refrigerator too long before eating. We picked and picked this year. At one point we mowed everything down, then mulched heavily with cut grass. Had a few white spears appear, they tasted the same as the others. The darn wire grass still came through. I have to get a hand on the weeds. I let them get ahead of me and were paying for it. Do you think that this winter I could roundup the grass then mulch real good and not kill my spears?

I'm hoping that one year I can be organized enough to start pickling some.

Susan, if the crowns are deep enough in the soil, the plants won't fall over.

Anyone else comment?

My plants are plenty deep (about 9") and they still fall over...

They're topheavy, they fall over. I tie mine up with stakes and twine.

Mine are between 9 & 12 inch deep when I mulch it brings it up to about 15 inches. I don't mind them falling over, they are very healthy and I am getting lots more gus each year.

I agree, they are top heavy and just fall over. We used to tie up our other bed, but decided this year there wasn't a reason to.

Flop, flop, flop.

If I didn't tie them, they'd fall over into the bed next door, or into the grass.

If they get into the veggie garden which the raised beds butt up to, then I lift them into the beds. I just leave them on the plants till Spring cause they mulch the beds and keep the crowns covered during the Winter.

I have never read anywhere, and I am a research person, that you HAVE TO stake them.

:p

I've never heard of or seen stacked asparagus.

Ooooh I'm so glad to have found this thread. It's exactly what I came looking for. You've already answered many of my questions and hopefully one of you will be kind enough to answer a couple more.

I too bought my asparagus on impulse just last weekend. The tag said nothing but 'asparagus' so I have no idea how old it is or even what kind for that matter. Am I to assume from my reading that I should not cut from it this year? (Darn it.) My biggest question though is about planting. I've already got something planted in what I plan to make it's permanent home. Can this remain in it's pot until I harvest the toms in the fall or does it need to be planted now? And if the answer is 'now' can I dig it up and move it in the fall?

I would try and get it in it's perm home as soon as you can but if you cannot Fall is ok. Gus is a Spring crop so if you see spears in the Fall I would leave them to fern, this will ensure strength to the plant for next year.

Asparagus draws all its strength from the root. The root is the plant. The fronds that come up are just temporary.

I've never seen an asparagus plant in a pot like that before. And June seems an odd time to plant.

From my limited knowledge of asparagus, one plants crowns as early as possible in the spring and then covers them with well-amended soil and mulch in a permanent location with several square feet of space.

I planted mine in Spring and Fall, I think as long as it gets in the ground it will be ok.