It's ok. Sometimes young spears can't push straight through the soil surface if it is hard -watering to soften it helps - or they will grow off the crown's side. Some will come up bent over in an arch as they use the stem shoulder rather than the pointed tip to push through.

But they usually straighten up on their own and even if they don't it doesn't hurt anything. Still taste and/or grow just fine. They will find their way up to the light one way or another. ;)

Dave

Thanks Dave. I just checked this morning and sure enough its starting to "curve" to a more vertical position.

On other question though: I planed Jersey Giant. The spears that are coming up are fairly thin. Do the spears thicken as they grow or are they suppose to emerge at full thickness?

Thanks.

They emerge at full thickness. The size of the spear is related to the health/age of the roots. When did you plant your asparagus bed? You can't expect to harvest anything significant for a few years. The instructions used to say no cutting until year 3 for the bed, but now the sites suggest a gentle cut for 7-10 days in the first year, and for 2 - 2.5 weeks in the second year.

Right, as granite says, the size they are when they emerge is the diameter they will be. They just get taller.

Good general rule of thumb is to never harvest any spears that are pencil size or smaller, let them go to fern. Just harvest the thicker spears - - if you can harvest any this year? how old were your crowns? - did they get a good feeding recently?

Dave

Hmmm, this concerns me. Out of the 20 I planted, 8 have emerged and they're all fairly skinny. I bought my crowns from Simmons Plant farm. I planted them about 15 days ago in a new bed that I had dug. I added compost and 10-20-10. They told me the crowns were two years old. They are Jersey Giant variety. Also, of the 8 crowns with spears growing, each of those crowns has only one spear growing. How much time between spears is there usually?

Thanks.

How many spears appear at a time all depends on the size of the crown. For young crowns, 1 or 2 is what you can expect and these will be joined by more as time goes by. You probably won't want to pick any of the spears that appear this year unless you have several from a crown and some are larger than a pencil. Mainly, the crowns need to establish themselves this year. As said above, don't pick anything thinner than a pencil, and next year only pick the larger spears for a short period as the crowns will still need to build their size. In the third year and after, you can pick for 4-8 weeks until the spear sizes are generally the size of a pencil, then quit and let them fern out for the summer to rebuild for the next year.

Sometimes spears will curl over or form a pigtail when they come up. This is usually due to damage on one side of the spear. If the skin on the spear is damaged, it will tend to form a scar which doesn't expand easily as the spear grows, forcing it to curl in the direction of the scar. The damage may be caused by insects such as asparagus beetles, by hard soil or rocks, or by sandblasting when the wind blows hard and blasts the emerging spears with sandy soil.

15 days is nothing. Just relax and watch them over the summer. Another factor in spear diameter is the planting distance between crowns. Did you put a source of phosphorus in the planting holes/ditch before planting? Did you read the Jersey Asparagus site for home gardeners' asparagus. Lots of good info there. Tom

I planted the crowns about 18 inches apart. I amended all the soil to about 18" deep with compost and lime. Then in each hole I mixed in about 4 scoops more of compost with the soil under the crown with about a teaspoon of 10-20-10. I think I did read that site.

Sounds as if you prepped and fed well so I wouldn't worry about them. First year growth is not indicative of what the established bed will produce, regardless of the age of the crowns so there is no need to be concerned. As goat man said, relax and watch them over the next few weeks as they keep producing. Just keep them well-watered and plan on a mid-season feeding and you'll be fine.

Or take the time now, if you have the space, to add some more crowns of one of the other Jersey varieties for later comparison and production. 20 crowns isn't nearly enough when it comes to enjoying fresh asparagus. ;)

Dave

Thanks Dave and the rest for the comments. Here's another one for ya. Yesterday evening I was scraping the soil with my hand over one of my asparagus roots that hasnt had a spear emerge yet. I was trying to scrape some of the soil off because for some reason the soil seems to have really compacted after burying the crowns. (caused by lots of rain, I think). As I was scraping I hit the crown and broke off either part of the crown or a barely formed spear. I hope I didnt kill it.

Im gonna try to post some pics very soon of my garden progress. I seem to be having some cold weather crop issues...I'll create another thread for that.

It sounds like your asparagus is off to a good start with great soil prep to carry it through the years. It may be frustrating to think that you should harvest little or no asparagus this year, but remember, you will not need to replant in future years. And the harvest will get better and better for the first several years with only the addition of some compost or other nutrient source. The crown beneath your broken spear should send up more spears throughout the season. Don't worry about it.

To be honest with you, if it were my bed I'm sure I'd harvest a few of the larger spears just because I would not be able to wait a WHOLE year for my own asparagus. It might affect the next year's harvest some, but it would make me happy now :) As long as the spears are allowed to grow to fronds for a few months before frost, the plant should be able to build up reserves for next year's growth. Just don't remove all the spears from any one crown or continue for more than a few weeks this year....and realize you may be reducing next year's yield, but not seriously damaging your plants.

My bed is going on 20 years old and still produces well. It has gone through times of severe neglect and still cropped well. This year I am planning to remove the blackberry bushes that are trying to invade the area. That is the first real work I will have done other than yearly mulching with compost (and that didn't always even happen), light weeding, and harvesting. We harvest all we can eat from late April til the 4th of July. I could freeze some but don't like it so well that way so I usually give the extra away. Asparagus is a tough plant, a true survivor. You will enjoy the great taste of spears you grew when they are fresh from the garden.

All excellent advice here, greenthumbnick! I can't add a thing....except for one little comment made.

Dave (digdirt): I'm just curious about this. You said "20 crowns isn't nearly enough when it comes to enjoying fresh asparagus". Holy cow! I have a 7 year old bed of Jersey Knights (20 crowns), and it keeps us buried in fresh 'gus for 8 weeks each season. We eat all we can, plus we supply our daughter's family and provide an occasional fistfull to a neighbor. What's up with that?

Admittedly, we don't care for frozen 'gus, so we no longer do that...just fresh eating. Anyway, I've seen comments like yours before and don't understand why one would want in excess of 20 crowns in a well prepared bed for a single family....unless post-season use is desired (freezing or canning). Maybe that's our difference. I can't imagine that our production is that much different from yours.

All this said, your reply would be welcome. As I mentioned above, I'm just curious....not critical.

Regards,
Hal

Hi Hal - What can I say? WE LOVE asparagus (and there is only 2 of us). We eat it daily in season and easily put away huge helpings of steamed each meal. Plus it gets used in salads (fresh and marinated), soups, on sandwiches, pickled snacks, with cheese on pizza, gets canned and frozen. Yes, we even love it frozen through the winter blahs.

We have a 12 year old bed with 35 crowns of mixed varieties, a 9 year old bed of 30 Jersey Knights, a 5 year bed of 20 mixed Jersey crowns, and a 2 yr. old bed of 24 Purple Passion.

And we do trade with neighbors and family but only once we have satisfied the initial cravings. ;)

Dave

WOW! Dave, now I know. There are asparagus lovers, then there are ASPARAGUS LOVERS!! That's a lotta 'gus!!

Thanks.
Hal

Here are a few pics of my asparagus. Click the image and you'll see more.
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