Because asparagus is a perennial vegetable that can live for years, site selection is very important. Selecting a proper site and properly planting the asparagus crowns are keys to growing asparagus spears for years and years. Asparagus requires full sun at least hours of direct sunlight daily and well-drained, sandy soil. If you have clay soil, select a space where the water doesn't saturate the soil, such as a hilltop or hillside. Amending the soil with compost or aged manure helps.
Also, asparagus prefers a soil pH of about 6. It doesn't like acidic soils. If planting in the spring, the soil bed should be prepared in the fall. Asparagus crowns are usually planted in the spring about weeks before the last spring frost date for your area. Gurney's also offers asparagus plugs that can be planted in the fall. Asparagus crowns are planted in a trench that is inches deep and spaced inches apart.
We recommend mixing Gurney's Asparagus Food into the soil prior to planting. Before planting, soak the asparagus crowns in water for minutes. Place the crown in the trench and spread out its roots. Cover with a few inches of soil and water. As the plants emerge, add more soil around them. Continue doing this until the trench is filled in and slightly higher than the soil level. It grows better where there is a cool or frosty season.
Steaming is traditional, then coating with melted butter or hollandaise sauce. Alternatively break in short lengths, and cook quickly in hot oil in a wok and sprinkle with soy sauce or balsamic vinegar. NOTE: The asparagus berries are poisonous. Only the young shoots are edible. Post your question or advice.
All comments are reviewed before displaying on the site, so your posting will not appear immediately. Your donation via PayPal will help support and improve Gardenate Donate. Put Gardenate in your pocket. Get our app for iPhone , iPad or Android to add your own plants and record your plantings and harvests. Here is what we found in a very unscientific blind testing.
Bearing in mind that all of them were delicious and far exceeded the flavour of shop bought these were the comments on each.
Needless to say we didn't all agree! Pacific - Very tender, great flavour, similar to Mondeo for flavour, slightly bitter raw. Note where comparisons were made the names of the varieties were not used but we worked it out from the numbers we gave each one. All in all we thought that Stewart Pacific was very very good and all the greens were amazing and beat Tesco's offering hands down. We were a bit underwhelmed by Pacific Purple.
The comments on each are a distillation of what the various suppliers and growers claim for their products. Connovers Colossal — This asparagus variety is bright green with purple tips, produces a good yield for a non hybrid. It is a well tried and tested popular older variety with an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. Martha Washington — this strong growing variety is an American favourite.
The long thick spears are emerald green and it has an extra long harvesting season. One supplier claims it is good for freezing, we will have to test this out It is resistant to rust and is an open pollinated variety. Gijnlim F1 hybrid — is a Dutch variety recommended by some Kent asparagus growers. It is adaptable liking either clay or sandy soils. Backlim F1 hybrid — is another Dutch variety not quite as highly recommended as the Gijnlim.
It produces a good crop mid to late season and the spears are thick with well closed tips. Its colour is lost if cooked so if you are going to cook it steaming is best. As its name suggests it produces purple spears which are sweet and tender and very good eaten raw. Pacific - Unusually there are two varieties of pacific one for spring and one for autumn planting. Make sure you get the right one! Again from New Zealand this variety was voted the best in commercial grower tests in When they are about 15cm tall, thin them again to about 30cm apart.
Asparagus crowns can be planted in winter and spring. Prepare the bed as early as possible and enrich it with manure, compost or bonemeal.
Mix the topsoil that has been removed with organic matter, and spread about 5cm of the mixture in the bottom of the trench. Spread the roots across the soil so that they radiate around the crown like rays of the sun.
They will appear to be semi-buried at the along the bottom of your trench. As the stems start to grow keep covering them back up until the trench has been filled. The crowns should be kept weed free and watered during dry weather.
Shoots will start to appear and these should be left to grow and open to ferny foliage. Asparagus is a fern that needs to grow out and capture all the sun it possibly can its first two years to store up energy and build its root system for future production.
The more time you give your plants to establish themselves in the first years, the longer and heavier they will bear. Cutworms: These cause damage by eating off the part of the spear underground. As a result, the damaged spear develops with a crooked tip. Utilize control methods. Asparagus Beetle: Both the adults and larvae attack asparagus spears and ferns. The beetle eats the tips of the spears as soon as they emerge from the ground.
Adult beetles lay eggs on the spears which are impossible to wash off. A useful companion plant for asparagus are tomatoes, which repel the asparagus beetle, while asparagus may repel some harmful root nematodes that affect tomato plants. Asparagus is one of the earliest vegetables from the garden in spring.
Knowing when to pick asparagus will result in the most flavourful experience from your crop. In the third year of growth, spears of plants will be ready for harvesting. During this initial harvest, plants should only be harvested for a period of 4 weeks.
Removing the spears for more than a month during this important year of growth will weaken and possibly kill the plant. Asparagus harvesting should begin when the stems are roughly 15cm to 20cm long and about finger-width in thickness.
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