Time to harvest asparagus berries

My raised asparagus bed has gone crazy this year. Time to harvest the seeds. If I were to do it over again I'd definitely move them to my kitchen garden zone 1 because those spears grow so fast it's easy to miss them in their prime.

Do you do anything with the asparagus berries? Are they good for starting new plants,

Mk Neal wrote:Do you do anything with the asparagus berries? Are they good for starting new plants,

Mine germinate quite well particularly in slightly acid soil. I've already put some on the north side of my strawberry bed, as asparagus and strawberries are supposed to "play nice" together. They tell you not to pick the spears for 7 years if you start from seed, but when you've got lots of baby plants, I figure I can cheat on that if they're crowded, which if you plant the whole berry, will tend to happen. I suppose it's partly based on your goal.

Thanks for posting. Just yesterday, I was looking at my asparagus berries and wondering what to do about the berries to expand the patch.

D

Each berry has 3-5 seeds. I have this patch in a raised bed and do have some escapees that start from berries that fall off and out of the bed. The germination rate is quite high. I tried the strawberry companion route this year but my chickens took all the strawberries out. Marigolds flourished in the understory. The fern fronds get quite tall for whatever this variety is, it has been so long I don't remember. Well over 6 feet of whispy green looks substantial until you get close and see how delicate the plant is.

Robert Ray wrote: Well over 6 feet of whispy green looks substantial until you get close and see how delicate the plant is.

This makes it an excellent "Edible Landscaping" plant for the back of a bed. Unfortunately the "back" of my Day Lily bed is beside the front walk so they don't get the support they need and tend to fall into the path, so one does have to choose the location well.

Robert Ray wrote:

I tried the strawberry companion route this year but my chickens took all the strawberries out.

Yeah - scratched the plants out, or ate the greens? Here I will loose them all to deer if I don't fence them.