A-Z of the little blue shack's garden - a little more "A"

Asparagus

Asparagus can be grown from seed or from crowns. Seed however requires a lot more patience and work, as you need to wait at least 2-3 years to start harvesting from them, whereas crowns can be purchased to avoid that wait. A crown is just the rootset which stores nutrients during winter ready for the plant to burst forth again in spring. You can get 1, 2 and even 3 year old crowns If you grow from seeds, then the seedlings need to be checked the first year and you are best to go with male plants rather than females which produce an abundance of red berries and skinnier stems. When you plant asparagus you want to ensure you pick a place they can remain undisturbed for the next 20 years as they will produce for many years to come. Unwanted seedlings from berry fall can 'choke' your garden bed. Crowns are more expensive, especially when you are trying to establish enough of them to make a good feed. I raised mine as bought seedlings and planted them into larger pots each year until after their third year. This has been handy as I didn't have a set place for where they would be located in the first years I had them, and it's allowed me to ensure they have had enough food and water to thrive. What I would suggest is that they need plenty of root depth, I've read they can have roots growing up to 1 metre down. To  help give them more depth I planted them into 20 litre food grade buckets that I had been using to store chicken food. I drilled holes around the sides about 5 cm up and filled to this height with gravel  to allow a water reservoir in the bottom to help offset our hot summers.

Asparagus growing in 20 litre buckets, this photo was taken late in the season when the plants had been left go to fronds.

 By the time I transplanted the first lot into their permanent beds last winter ready for spring their root systems were well developed and able to produce a great crop. During their first harvest year, normally the fourth year from seed/seedling, or the first year from crown, it's recommended to only harvest for about the first 6 weeks and then let them grow fern ready to build up the crown for the following season. After that I've found you can stretch the harvest by allowing tiny thin stems to frond, while still picking any thick stems. But you must ensure you leave them some time to replenish the crown during the last half of summer. When fronds start browning off (in my subtropical climate  this often doesn't happen so I normally limit any watering to force them to have a "dormant" period in late June/early July) you cut back the fronds and top dress the garden bed with good organic compost, manure and mulch well ready for the growing season as asparagus are heavy feeders.

Smaller pots being used for very young seedlings. This photo taken almost at the end of the season when they were due to be cut down and transplanted into the bigger 20 litre buckets.

I recently top dressed the Asparagus gardens with a mix of compost and composted manure and added some "Rooster Booster" chicken manure pellets as once they start growing again they are heavy feeders. In this image you can see some Asparagus starting to come up early.

More Asparagus coming up. Since these shots I've also heavily mulched the beds with sugar cane mulch. This helps keep the moisture in and gives the Asparagus some cover as it starts to come up. I've found the more depth the shoots need to grow through the more the stems seem to thicken up.

Ok, so I think that covers the last of my "A's". Do you have any plants starting with "A" that I've missed?

Coming up next in our alphabet we'll proceed to"B"...