It is one of the first spring vegetables to poke through. This will be the first year I will be able to cut and eat my own asparagus. I started some Mary Washington from seed five years ago. I was just experimenting then and didn’t really have a defined garden, so I planted them in a shady location with poor soil. A couple years ago I transplanted them in the mid summer to a new location, in full sun with good topsoil and manure. I was going to cut some spears in the 4th year but they just came up so small and spindly I was afraid that cutting some could hurt the root base. Well last fall after a couple years in rich soil they had exploded, so much so that my spacing was just to close together. I learned that trying to separate 3+ year old crowns is a terrible idea. I did manage to separate them for the most part but there were a couple that were just too close together to easily separate.
That same year in 2008 I also planted a couple of nursery plants I bought because mine had been going so poorly. Needless to say they are doing were well and will be harvested this year.
I also started some Viking asparagus from seed in the summer of 2008. Now I did learn my lesson from the last time and started these seed in full sun, in a mix of topsoil and manure. They germinated and were growing well…… but I made a different mistake this time. I planted tomatoes beside the asparagus and got them too close. The tomatoes grow over the asparagus and killed off about half of it, and stunted the growth of the other half. Most of it did come up last year but was smaller then it should have been, because it was forced into dormancy early. The asparagus did get significantly bigger throughout the year and in the fall of 2010 was dug up and separated because it was planted too close together.
This spring as I was reading up on gardening and asparagus I realized that my spacing was still inadequate. I also realized that although I have planted a bunch of seeds I only had about a half dozen clumps growing. Although they may be in clumps, one asparagus seed equals one crown. The other day on April 26, 2011 I dug up the crowns of the Viking’s to transplant again to a permanent location with proper spacing.
When I dug up the crowns, I washed the dirt off and separated each clump into individual crowns. The biggest clump only had 2 crowns in it, while the smallest one had 9 crowns all intertwined. It was smaller because all of those crowns are fighting with each other for nutrients to grow. The roots all mesh together so it is important to be careful when you separate them, so they aren’t damaged.
In the picture above you can see on the left is one crown that is being separated from the clump. It was one of the bigger crowns, but there were also a few small ones with only a half a dozen roots. The roots are very tangled and are not the easiest thing to untangle. I washed off the extra dirt so tha it was easier to separate them. If you look closely at the tops of the crowns you can see a couple little white sprouts, this is the asparagus spears just starting. These crowns are in their 3rd year and are still fairly small, the smaller the crowns are the easier it will be to separate them.
Lessons learned
- Space your asparagus seeds around 3” apart
- In the fall of the 1st year separate and transplant the crowns to their permanent location
(you could do this in the spring of the second year, but I find transplanting in the fall much easier)
- Plant it in manure, it needs rich soil
- I mulch with straw to help protect the roots against the winter thaw, as well as weed control and to help the soil to retain moisture, but it’s not necessary
- Final spacing should be at a minimum, crowns 12 inches apart and rows 2 feet apart
- However if you have the space it is much better to allow 18 – 30 inches between plants and 3 – 4 feet between rows
- Because of the origins of asparagus from the
Helpful Website
- Chives came up on April 10th
- Ruhbarb poked through April 14th
