Growing Asparagus In The Home Garden
by John Yazo
Asparagus, one of the earliest crops of the season. This hardy perennial will produce fresh tender spears from early spring until the arrival of warm weather. This crop needs a winter dormancy period to produce a thriving spring crop. Once harvested, the mature asparagus plant will grow to a height of 4 to 6 feet and a width of about 3 feet, producing decorative feathery plumes that should be left on the plant until they naturally dry out in the fall.
When choosing a site location for your asparagus bed, a well-drained soil is very important. If there is standing water, even for a short period of time, or a saturated soil conditions where you were planning on starting your asparagus bed, you should consider building a raised bed. Full sun is also a must when growing an asparagus crop.
Soil preparation for asparagus should be done a year in advance. Begin by first testing the soil,a ph range of 6.5 to 7.5 is needed for asparagus, and good healthy organic soil structure is a big benefit too. Soil is the key to any type of crop you are growing, the ph range may differ but the soil needs to be healthy to retain the proper moisture and nutrients needed for plant life to thrive.
Asparagus can be planted either from seed or crowns purchased at a garden center. The one thing with asparagus is that the crown needs the proper cover, 6 - 10 inches depending on the soil conditions, and with seed you wont get this needed cover requirement because of the shallow depth needed for the seed to germinate.
When planting, layout your rows 4 - 5 feet apart, and dig a trench 8 - 10 inches deep, if you are planting in a clay soil, keep the depth at about 6 inches. Once your trenches are dug, spread a little organic phosphate fertilizer in each trench before placing the crowns 8 - 12 inches apart. When filling the trench to cover the crowns, only add about 3 inches of soil, and wait about 6 weeks, giving the plants enough time to grow. After about 6 weeks you can add another 3 inches of soil around the plants, leaving about another 3 or 4 inches of the trench not filled in yet. You will want to finish filling in the remainder of the trench in the fall when the plants have gone dormant.
When asparagus beds are prepared and planted properly, they will give you many years of a healthy and productive crop.
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