Sprigs of Asparagus
Does anyone remember that song "Age of Aquarius" by 5th Dimension? Anyway, that was what was in my head when I came up with the title of this post. I thought it likely a bit obtuse for anyone to catch it.
To recap the above photo, I ordered 24 asparagus plants from a seed company on the west coast and despite me stating where I lived and what zone, they never arrived when it was prime planting time. Only after complaining did they finally sent them and thus they went into the ground a couple months later after they are normally done producing for the year. I tilled the soil and added some better soil but admit that they didn't get planted in optimum conditions at the optimum time. That was two years ago.
You are supposed to wait two years before picking your first asparagus to give them time to get established so we didn't pick any last year. We did have some sprigs come up last year but it definitely wasn't from all 24 plants. I'm guessing maybe only 10 or so plants survived that first winter.
This spring, we had maybe 8 show any signs of life and so I decided that just wasn't going to do it for us and so when one of my local stores put out their asparagus crowns, we picked up a bundle of maybe 14 or so crowns and brought them home. I put them wrapped in plastic in our fridge overnight and the next morning dug around all the few spears that were there and simply removed all that bad soil. I dug down into the clay a bit and removed that as well. I then backfilled with slightly composted manure, something I didn't do the first time around. I then added a couple inches of good soil on top of that and planted the crowns topped by more good soil and some of the better top soil that I initially removed. It was a lot of work.
Now, several weeks later, the fruits of my labors are visible and all of them are sprouting. My plan is to let them continue to grow up and then get a bit more top soil to mound the bed because they like to be well drained and perhaps top dress it with a bit more composted manure. I know from our past garden, composted manure and asparagus do really well together.
So now the clock starts over and perhaps two years from now, I will at least have an established asparagus bed with plenty of sprigs for consumption.
When I saw this post in my list before I got to it, that song immediately sprang to mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone got it without my having to name it.
DeleteThey take a while to get established..patience")
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to have patience when all my life, I've had abundant asparagus for my picking!
DeleteWell dang, Ed. Now I'll have that song (with your title) running through my head the rest of the day! Asparagus seems like SO much trouble to grow. Then again, I'm not much of a gardener.
ReplyDeleteIt takes awhile to establish but once you have a nice stand, it provides an abundant harvest of fresh asparagus and there is really very little work. At our previous bed on the farm, I burnt all the old stalks off in late winter/early spring and that was the only maintenance I did to it all year for over two decades!
DeleteI love asparagus so it would be hard to wait!
ReplyDeleteI had pickled a bunch from prior crops so we have been going through those and buying store bought for now.
DeleteI love asparagus. I'd heard to let it feather out and grow for two years, then start eating it. Mine attracted weird little black worms that ate the feathery stuff. Just your song variation remains in my garden. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI've never had black worms but I have had the deer eat the feathered tops.
DeleteI love asparagus . I didn't know it was so hard to start.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to do best with lots of nitrogen that can be found in manure, or at least what I've seen over the years. So they can be harder to start in poor depleted soil which is what I started with.
DeleteI remember you having issues with getting the asparagus in the ground. After five years of trying, I finally have grapes on my vines! It takes time, sometimes!
ReplyDeleteI'm optimistic that since these went in during the optimal time and in a lot better conditions, that this time will be the charm. We had grapes at our farm garden that we got one harvest off of before we transferred to this garden. We have yet to attempt to plant grapes here.
DeleteI appreciate your determination, Ed. I didn't realize asparagus could be so hard to start. Our inherited bed is producing less and less each year, and I've decided I'm just going to enjoy what comes up, and mow it down when it's not worth it anymore. I've concluded the problems we've started having with production are likely due to age, and the impossibilty of adequately weeding the approximately 6ft square patch. I try every spring to get weeds out, but because the space is too large to just reach into the middle, I've likely damaged young spears stepping into the patch. So every weeding attempt is fraught with trying to decide if I'm better off leaving weeds or risk stepping on young plants I can't see yet. Even along the edge, I risk damaging a crown whose spears haven't yet sprouted through the soil. In our patch, eventually the weeds will win. I have made peace with it. 😉
ReplyDeleteAsparagus eventually crowds itself out and will run its course in 20 to 25 years.
Delete