Asparagas patch - how thick to let it fill in?

[JRinPA]

How full should I let the asparagus beds get? This is the first bed I have made myself. I have seen some others that have well spaced plants, but they are older beds and very weedy, so not a good example.

The bed was made probably 5 years back now, with crowns from at least three sources added in the first couple years. The original plan put the crowns down the centerline of each bed, about 12-18" between. But some crowns didn't take, and there were two more fill-in additions in subsequent years. Last year it really came in nicely with the latest transplants taking root. I pulled most of the volunteers out but also arranged for some to stay. Those are little under pencil size this year and I won't harvest them. But lots of new volunteers this year. So what is "enough"?.

I dumped a bucket of fish compost over this bed before freeze last year. Then compost, and leaves. It is really popping now, beautiful sweet stuff, even with this dry spring.

The question is, how many of the hundreds of 2024 volunteer starts should be allowed to grow this year? Or does it look full enough now with the year-old pencil size already ferning out?

This year I might try to suppress the female ferns so they don't go to seed. Though it is not really a great trouble to wipe out each year's starts on May 1st of each year.

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[habitat-gardener]

I keep my asparagus patch weeded, because asparagus doesn’t like competition. My patch is in its fourth year, though I started with a few overgrown plants I dug up at a public garden (as part of a volunteer gig) as well as new crowns. The newer plants are more productive. I just started noticing baby ferns in the path next to the asparagus bed, and if I had a lot of volunteers, I’d probably take them out so that the bed didn’t get too crowded.

[Paulf]

I began growing asparagus about six years ago with ten plants per row, the rows about four feet apart. The first two rows grew without harvesting until the third year. Each year another ten plants in a row. Last year the last of the asparagus was put in. Until harvest age was reached the plants just grew without anything but weeding. It was like a jungle until harvest. As the years went by the patch looked a little tamer. Weeding is important. After harvest was done for the year, I just let everything go wild, left the huge ferns go all winter, then cut back to the ground in later winter. This year only one row will be allowed to grow wild. On the tame rows there are no small ferns coming up, only edible asparagus stalks. Maybe it is our weather differences. Any plants outside the rows I would rouge out just to keep the beds manageable.

My father had asparagus in his garden for twenty or more years without adding new plants and his just kept producing like crazy…no idea how he did it.

[Whwoz]

I don't grow asparagus and don't know a lot about it, but from what little I know it is a reasonably heavy feeder and needs a fair bit of room to grow. By the looks of the beds width, I would just leave the crowns you have in the middle of the bed and weed out all the seedlings. You may find it more productive long term to pot up some of the seedlings, get rid of any female plants and replace any female crowns with male plants. Would save you weeding every year at least.

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

Please don't laugh at my question....

How to determine male vs female plants? I bought crowns and started a bed about 4 years ago - would have to look back in my plans to see. I left it alone first year, sampled some the second year. Would like more but haven't added in more crowns. Please explain to this asparagus newbie, thanks!

[pondgardener]

@CrazyAboutOrchids I just started a new bed of asparagus this Spring, so I am a newbie as well. This article may help you determine what you have growing and think about removing any crowns you believe to be female. Too bad you can't look at an unplanted crown to determine if it is male or female.

https://gardenerspath.com/plants/vegeta ... asparagus/

[JRinPA]

Okay after reading the posts and a few websites I feel a little more wizened. How close in the row is what I'm trying to figure. I did make two narrow beds for easier harvest and planted right down the middle. Closer to the edge will be a more exposed to temp swings.

Also, are the seeded asparagus starts going to be good plants, worthwhile to grow? Are the volunteers going to be a mix of male and female, or are they all female? Most of the webpages won't/don't/can't specify. They just tell you to buy Jersey/Rutgers patented hybrids, all male. I wish I had understood that before the beds were made. Though really, there seems to be plenty.


I think I will weed out all the fresh volunteers this year unless there is a wide gap.

Later I will pay attention to the flowers and identify the female ones.

The females can be dug out to make an all male bed?
Do the males then expand their crowns to fill the gaps?
Or are replacement crowns needed?

[habitat-gardener]

I wouldn't remove my female plants. But I may look closely at the flowers and cut down the ferny stems that have female flowers, to save the plant from producing seeds.

[Tormato]

I began growing asparagus about six years ago with ten plants per row, the rows about four feet apart. The first two rows grew without harvesting until the third year. Each year another ten plants in a row. Last year the last of the asparagus was put in. Until harvest age was reached the plants just grew without anything but weeding. It was like a jungle until harvest. As the years went by the patch looked a little tamer. Weeding is important. After harvest was done for the year, I just let everything go wild, left the huge ferns go all winter, then cut back to the ground in later winter. This year only one row will be allowed to grow wild. On the tame rows there are no small ferns coming up, only edible asparagus stalks. Maybe it is our weather differences. Any plants outside the rows I would rouge out just to keep the beds manageable.

My father had asparagus in his garden for twenty or more years without adding new plants and his just kept producing like crazy…no idea how he did it.

Twenty years is about what one should expect, with good drainage, and healthy plants.

My thoughts are to have a long term plan of how many plants one wants. The bed prep is the most important part about growing asparagus. It must have good drainage. As for spacing, a double staggered row, where plants in the 2nd row are centered half way between plants in the 1st row, all plants being 18" apart, is how I would do it. If not interested in creating more plants from seed, take out the lower producing female plants.

After a heavy frost, I immediately cut out dead ferns, just under the soil line, and bag them for the trash, or burn them. I do not want asparagus beetles around.

(and I'm always looking for any experimental seed, if one should have any extra)

[JRinPA]

I haven't kept any seed.
Below the soil line for the fern cuts? I have been shredding and composting the ferns, I think.

I have a had a few beetles over the first few years for this patch, but nothing too terrible. When I see them I've been taking the time to look the over and I think I used Sevin once or twice. There was one beetle yesterday. The smaller than pencil stalks are already starting to flower and that's where I saw found and killed one yesterday.

There is already too much for me to eat, really. I started the bed for my mom, made it so she could access it. We did pretty well designing it, I think. Worked well but really came into full swing production in 2022. 2020 lockdown was right about the time I made the bed, had to be in fact, because the original crowns came from an abandoned bed at the house of a friend of hers. I remember moving that lady's sewing machine, and then we had to put it into storage instead, because the senior apartments she was moving into wouldn't allow anyone but residents on premise to move it up the stairwell for her, because Gov. Wolfe's lockdown had started the day before. And of course they would not take it up themselves, even if I brought it over and unloaded it. I have a feeling it is still in paid storage thanks to the nice bureaucrats.

By the time I had read a little about the jersey hybrids, probably June 2020, nothing was available to buy. Oh, good memories. So yeah, this is the fifth year for the bed, 2nd year production was nice (added WM stock), 3rd year production was good (added transplants from comm garden and drip tape), 4th great (no adds except allowed some volunteers), this year it is crazy good. I still see "holes" but they have to be less than 18", so if that is the number, I guess the bed is at capacity.

cont.

[JRinPA]

I just culled most of the small seedlings. There are quite a few 2nd year volunteers that I have already allowed to fern. That where I saw a beetle yesterday. Many of these ferns are already developing flowers.

So if I understand this correctly, each single fern will develop a crown under it?

For example, a stand of ferns from 2022 seed, allowed to grow in 2023, now has 10 sub pencil size ferns. Some of them are already heavy with flowers and leaning over. I assume these are going to be female, but I can wait to be sure. If I find 7 of those 10 ferns turn out to be female, I can pull them out by the root. That would leave 3 male ferns/crowns in that spot. Do I leave all three or cull back to just a single male fern for just one crown to expand?

At this point I don't need the seeds so I am probably better off removing the weed producers.

[Tormato]

I just culled most of the small seedlings. There are quite a few 2nd year volunteers that I have already allowed to fern. That where I saw a beetle yesterday. Many of these ferns are already developing flowers.

So if I understand this correctly, each single fern will develop a crown under it?

For example, a stand of ferns from 2022 seed, allowed to grow in 2023, now has 10 sub pencil size ferns. Some of them are already heavy with flowers and leaning over. I assume these are going to be female, but I can wait to be sure. If I find 7 of those 10 ferns turn out to be female, I can pull them out by the root. That would leave 3 male ferns/crowns in that spot. Do I leave all three or cull back to just a single male fern for just one crown to expand?

At this point I don't need the seeds so I am probably better off removing the weed producers.

Even cutting the fresh green spears should be done just under the soil line. Then wash and trim them. The bottom of the spear will likely be woody, so flexing and snapping them works, too.

It sounds like you have sort of a mess, and don't know where all of the crowns are. When very young they will send up a single spear. A bit older they send up more centrally located thicker spears. Mature plants have a large crown and much thicker spears that can be spread out many inches apart from each other. In a very good location, 14 inches is about the minimum spacing (according to the "experts"). Perhaps that's what gives maximum harvest per plant. If you have an overharvest, maybe you could go down to 10-12 inch spacing. If I had the room I'd experiment with different spacing in different beds. Asparagus is a long time project, unlike annuals.

As for the beetles, I remove them by hand. First, one must line up the opening in the plant's branching, for quickly getting one's hand to the beetle. It will quickly crawl from the topside of the branch to its underside. So, with just thumb and forefinger, quickly go to the underside of the branch, your hand will still be just above the topside of the branch where the beetle was last spotted on that topside, feel and grasp (if you want to capture them alive, and put them in a container with a top), or feel and squeeze if you want to dispatch them.

[JRinPA]

The bed is definitely not perfect but culling the seed producers seems like the next step. It is full enough.

I might try the bug-a-salt 3.0 for the beetles. Could load it with epsom salt even, or 10-10-10. But after dealing with lantern fly nymphs, these guys are a pushover.

[JRinPA]

So here is a pic this morning, couldn't pick them yesterday, so had some new tall ones.

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I don't know if they keep growing a couple inches after being snapped off? I try snap the right around or below ground level, but the next day I tend to see them an inch or two up higher? Then the dogs sniff at them and have to be shoo-ed away.

Now that we got some rain ( first in 2-1/2 weeks, and it was dry before that (I watered well once in that stretch) they will take off and I should really be able to tailor it. I scraped off most of this year's volunteers (weeds, I get it) a couple days back. So next will be culling out the yearlings that turn out to be weed producers.

I thought I had read, years back, to cut the full grown and senesced ferns off at 2" or so above ground before the ground freezes. So that is what I've been doing with this bed. Cut them and then add compost/woodchips, and let it winter. Then when they start coming up in the spring, I twist and pull the dead stems, like harvesting rhubarb.

[Tormato]

So here is a pic this morning, couldn't pick them yesterday, so had some new tall ones.
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I don't know if they keep growing a couple inches after being snapped off? I try snap the right around or below ground level, but the next day I tend to see them an inch or two up higher? Then the dogs sniff at them and have to be shoo-ed away.

Now that we got some rain ( first in 2-1/2 weeks, and it was dry before that (I watered well once in that stretch) they will take off and I should really be able to tailor it. I scraped off most of this year's volunteers (weeds, I get it) a couple days back. So next will be culling out the yearlings that turn out to be weed producers.

I thought I had read, years back, to cut the full grown and senesced ferns off at 2" or so above ground before the ground freezes. So that is what I've been doing with this bed. Cut them and then add compost/woodchips, and let it winter. Then when they start coming up in the spring, I twist and pull the dead stems, like harvesting rhubarb.

Any mulch at this time of the year?

[JRinPA]

I did not mulch yet. Do you think I should much in spring after woodchips and leaves in fall/winter? I have plenty of good 5 year composted yard waste but have not applied any to these beds. I'm never sure what mulch is considered to be...I mulched many of my comm plots with shredded leaves in the last two weeks. But around here people say Mulch and they mean like wood chips composted with grass for just a double grind, 1 year. "black mulch", and it is still steaming on the driveway when it is dropped.

[Tormato]

I did not mulch yet. Do you think I should much in spring after woodchips and leaves in fall/winter? I have plenty of good 5 year composted yard waste but have not applied any to these beds. I'm never sure what mulch is considered to be...I mulched many of my comm plots with shredded leaves in the last two weeks. But around here people say Mulch and they mean like wood chips composted with grass for just a double grind, 1 year. "black mulch", and it is still steaming on the driveway when it is dropped.

If it's steaming it's compost, not mulch.

I want to cool the surface temp of the soil, so...shredded oak leaves, not completely broken down, is what I use for mulch, a minimum of a loose 2 1/2 inches. Over the coarse of the summer, with a few heavy rain showers, it will compact down to about 2 inches, from what I've read the minimum depth to effectively keep the soil cooler.

Never mulch pepper plants. Been there, done that.

I wait until daytime temps consistently get to the mid/high 70s, or so, always after at least the first cutting. I get an extra several weeks of asparagus harvest, compared to a bare ground plot. After a heavy frost, when ferns are then dead, I remove the mulch, for two reasons. First, I want to cut out all of the dead stalks just below ground level. Second, if I leave the mulch on overwinter, voles may decide to live in/under it. They can do heavy damage munching on roots/crowns, up to killing the plants. The first time I planned for an asparagus bed, I had a seedling bed, densely planted with about 200 plants. I left the mulch on, and come spring, taking away the mulch, there was a maze of half-burrows zigzagging throughout the bed. Not a single seedling survived.

[JRinPA]

Steaming would be unfinished compost or big piles of anything, dug into. But black mulch is double grinded and mix to turn black, and is what a lot of people seem to want in their flower beds. I would never use it on garden beds, it is mostly blackened wood chips. In the the huge piles it is still working to make that black look, so it steams off when moved on a cool morning.

ok, why never mulch pepper plants?

Never yet seen voles in the asaragus. Knock on wood. Perhaps because it is raised 5-6". The winter stack of compost/woodchips/leaves is to refresh for spring and insulate to protect from freeze/thaw all winter.

[pondgardener]

Never mulch pepper plants. Been there, done that.

I'm curious as well. Here in semi-arid Colorado, I line the rows between peppers with pine straw when the temps get above 90˚on a regular basis. No problems yet.

[JRinPA]

I grow peppers sometimes without mulch (if I have a row of red beets between a double row of peppers). The best is probably when I use black plastic mulch with drip line under it. I don't know if I've mulched with leaves. A couple years at the comm garden, voles were nipping the lower peppers after they sagged in a florida weave. At least I've always blamed it on voles, I did find some there, they were under the black plastic mulch.