Timothy Dowty wrote:I enjoy a good side of asparagus. I would like to plant this in the garden, however, I have had friends warn me off the crop because it is pops up all over where you don't want it. Have any of you here in growies land had any asparagus experience in keeping a good crop contained to its own areas without having to box it in from your regular garden plot?
Actually, you will *want* to box it
in, not because the asparagus will 'escape', but
because quack grass will come in if you don't.
Regular/wild asparagus that pops up everywhere are mixed male and female plants. Those will flower like all flowering sexual beings. When you
purchase asparagus plants, they may be highly hybridized and you will get only *males* plants: They give the biggest spears because they will reproduce *asexually/vegetatively/without making flowers*: So they don't exhaust themselves making seeds. [I really don't know how they do it, but they do it.]
So it depends how you want to be growing your asparagus. We have sandy soil here, so asparagus, wild and not grows quite well, even in a zone 4b with very cold winters.
A couple more tips to maximize yield:
You may want to solarize the soil by laying a clear plastic over the area during the
previous growing season. [I didn't, but that's because I didn't want to bother].
* it 'tolerates' shade but need 8 hours of sunlight to produce their best.
*When planting, place your crowns apart and *spread them*[Don't trench, like you might do strawberries by planting your shovel and moving the spade back and forth to make a slit]. Lay them flat and spread the
roots like the spokes of a wheel, then put the soil back over the plant, light the first year at planting, then heavier.
* Asparagus is a heavy feeder: Give it your best
seed free compost/
chicken manure. Nitrogen high.
*
Mulch it plenty. My roots don't even spread out until 6" below ground. The first growing season, go easy on the mulch so you don't suffocate your plants. Before the first winter, pile it on if you are in a really cold zone, even if you must remove the mulch partially in the spring [put little flags where the roots are in that case].
*The first 2 years, DO NOT HARVEST. Yeah, I know, it is tempting, especially if they put thumb sized spears like mine did, but resist the temptation: The plants need to grow strong before you start taxing them like that.
*Wait until the top growth is dead before you remove the fronds and install mulch. I like to burn the fronds in place, with a torch: Asparagus like
ash. I even add a little ash from my
wood burning pile in the fall.
* Be super attentive to weeds invading the bed, quack grass in particular. It will pass under a bed and start to invade when it senses good loose soil! It is all too easy to steal the spears and abandon the plot until next year. And yes, the asparagus will escape the confines of a bed for the same reason that quack grass will come in: Unless you trench to over a foot, that bed 'barrier' is porous and like all plants, asparagus is adventurous.
Good luck to you. Asparagus is expensive in stores, so it is well worth the extra effort to grow your own. Tended properly, your bed
should last 7 years, more or less.
After 7 years, you will still be able to take a few, but they won't be so abundant. Abandon them and prepare a new bed. Get new crowns as asparagus does not transplant as well when it is full grown, although I have successfully split a large asparagus plant and transplanted it. If you do, same thing: Let it recover one year before you pull from it.