Calling all experienced asparagus growers

Apr 02, 2025 15:57:57

Hi there fellow grower of asparagus!

I want to start a thread for tips, tricks and observations of what works for growing good asparagus.
Fails are also welcome of course.
Let's learn from each other's successes and failures.

I'll start.
Location Tasmania Australia, on a cool mountain with mild summers and cool winters (some snow).
Soil is deep free draining red clay, over a metre in some areas.

Any asparagus I planted directly into the clay, without improving first with compost, stayed alive but essentially hasn't grown in three years.

Where I have enriched with compost, it has grown much larger and I have started to harvest my first spears.

I have over 50 plants to move (I over planted them) and am trying to decide where to move them to, hence this thread.
I'm thinking some in my future food forest area, which has poor soil but will be improved as the years go on with organic matter and mulch. I would prep each hole before planting by digging through compost and then mulch the plants.

I also have natural springs on the property and some wet areas, and was thinking about naturalizing some asparagus in those areas, not right in the sodden parts but on the outskirts.
Then I'm thinking some through my more mixed ornamental/edible gardens surrounding buildings near paths so that you can snap off a few spears as you walk.

My issue is I don't have a whole lot of experience with what they grow well with. Do they compete too much with fruit trees? Can I interplant them with medicinal flowers like echinacea to look meadow like?

And my biggest question, how much water do they need when they are no longer cropping (during summer and autumn). Their foliage looks like it hardly transpires, so I assume not much, but I am not sure if it will affect the next years harvest if they are starved of hydration in summer.

I know of early Italian and Greek migrants in Australia naturalising asparagus in grasslands that they would then forage, so I know it's pretty tough stuff.
But I swant those tender thick shoots if possible, rather than spindly stuff.

What I've learnt so far about asparagus.

-It prefers neutral soils, and dislikes acid soils.
-It needs plenty of organic matter and mulch to get it going. Loves sheep manure!
-When harvesting leave some spears to turn into plenty of ferny foliage that must not be cut back to store energy for next years spears. Keep this in mind as it gets a bit tall and 'messy' and can harbour snakes etc in a wilder garden setting.
-The male/female plant thing is nonsense and both can produce very good spears, there's no need to keep one and discard the other.

Excited to hear anyone's input.

Your turn! 🤠

Apr 04, 2025 20:32:49

I've been growing asparagus for over 30 years now. It's always been one of my favorite vegetables and my favorite variety is Purple Passion, which I originally started from a single seed packet many years ago. Since then, I've started dozens of plants and given quite a few away. I know that most people like to start asparagus from crowns from the store, but I always had mold problems with those. So I decided to grow from seed. Purple Passion is delicious and sweeter than most varieties- the sugar content is 20% higher than the green varieties.

I always say that it would be hard to have too much asparagus, so I try to start some new plants every year or two. I harvest the berries from the female plants in the fall (another good reason to have male and female plants!), extract the big seeds and dry them inside. In the winter or spring, I plant the seeds in 6 packs, then transfer the plants to 4 inch or 1 gallon size pots in the summer. In late winter the following year, I transplant the baby plants to a raised bed that is enriched with lots of compost, lime and sand- important when growing in clay soil. In the spring and summer, I side dress with chicken manure and wood ashes. I like a thick layer of wood chip mulch on top. I think the heavy wood chip mulch suppresses weeds and keeps watering requirements to a minimum, although I do try to give the plants a good watering at least twice a week during the hot part of the summer.

One mistake I made once was to try and remove a bunch of dandelions that moved into one of my asparagus beds. I was a bit too aggressive with the trowel and shovel that winter when digging up the dandelions, and I accidentally damaged several asparagus crowns, even killing a few of them. So nowadays I let the dandelions co-exist with their asparagus friends.

A few days ago, I interplanted red radishes in between the rows of the newest asparagus plants. They should like the compost, sand and lime in the raised bed and be ready for harvest in about 6 weeks without interfering with the young asparagus plants. .

My asparagus plants are not directly under my fruit trees, but one bed is close to the grapes. I'm not sure how they would do right underneath fruit trees, but I've kind of avoided it because both have such deep roots. I have seen asparagus grow wild in old pear orchards. But one thing is for certain- asparagus does not like grass!

Apr 04, 2025 20:37:12

Hi Julinka, hello from South Oz. My first asparagus crowns were planted in loamy soil down by a small ephemeral creek. They grew well, with supplementary watering. We always left anything thinner than a pencil as the refueling stock for the following year - we had enough to freeze for winter.
Then we had a bush fire. Most crowns survived, but I decided to move them to closer to the house. The roots spread out radially rather than going deep, and it took 2 years or so to get them established enough for spears big enough for eating. The soil there is loam from the paddock, with added compost.
I read that sandy soil was best - but that was for picking the spears underground for white asparagus - I prefer mine green anyway.
Not sure how next crop will go - no rain, animals eating anything green and since we are a rainwater only household, not too much available for watering. Fingers crossed.
Can't help you with companion plants - mine have been subjected to paddock weeds blowing in, but I do pull and drop with those. Hope you find their happy place.

Apr 04, 2025 23:29:15

Pretty easy to start from seeds. I planted several from root stock I bought at the store, and also from 'wild' asparagus I dug up from the roadside that had been growing there since I was a kid, so maybe 50 years. Both grew well in my hard clay soil. I harvest the seeds and scatter them where I want more plants and every year a few grow.

What do you have in that there bucket? It wouldn't be a tiny ad by any chance ...

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