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Vegetable Gardening

Asparagus From Seed

16 years ago

I have a very specific question about growing asparagus from seed. I hope I'm not duplicating a previous thread.

I plan to grow asparagus from seed. I can visualize two methods of handling the plants once they are ready to remove from flats and plant in the ground.

a.) Plant each seedling in its permanent location. In this case, I suppose the seedlings should be planted in a hole which is gradually filled as the plants grow, resulting in the root system buried at the proper depth.

b.) Set the plants out in a nursery bed. Then dig and transplant them next spring, following the method for planting one year old crowns.

Which way would you recommend. Or is there a still better way?

Jim

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Comments (2)

larry_c
16 years ago
What type of seeds/plants are you planning on? For all of the work involved, and the waiting time, my call is to hit Wally World and get some male only Jersey crowns. I got 10 plants for about 6 bucks last year. The experience with Martha Washington was that it tends to produce female plants. Female plants have smaller spears and produce seeds that foster weed asparagus in the patch.

You can take up the msle crowns and seperate them in year 2 or 3 to get more plants. Or maybe just take up half of them.

CrAzY LaRrY
0
John A
16 years ago
Hi Jim, I did about the same thing that you did. I have only 1 female Jersey Knight plant. I harvested seed from it several years ago and started them inside the following spring. As I recall, I got about 50% germination. I planted them directly in their permanent location as you would with crowns, This is their 3rd year and I have spears about ready to harvest. All of the new starts were males.
John A
0
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Plant seeds outside in any bed planted 1/2 inch deep and 2 inches apart in the row. Start the seeds when the soil temperatures have reached 60Â°F. Dig the plants the following spring, before growth begins and transplant them to the permanent bed as soon as the garden can be worked. No interim transplanting. There is a previous discussion on this forum called something like "Grow asparagus from seed?" that a search will pull up for you. In fact there are several previous discussions on it but this one links to a video on how to do it indoors. Dave
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Thanks for your help. My goal for next year is to eat enough yogurt so that I have so many cups that I can plant just one seed per cup and not worry if a few fail. That way I can avoid the problem altogether. Bye the way, I did plant a couple the way my DH suggested so we'll see what happens. He just built us a new vegetable garden with six 2 ft high 4x8 raised beds, timer controlled drip irrigation and a 7 ft high deer fence surrounding it. Not to worry about "matrimonial matters". He gained super hero status in my eyes.
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Actually you will need at three years before you can harvest your asparagus. This lets the plant to establish itself, and become a better producer. Picking too soon will take strength from the plant and it will not produce as it should. Also the variety you have is both male and female plants and will produce seed each year. The best time to plant where you asre located is a guess for me, I would think that the spring would be the best. I live in zone 7 and that is what I would do. If you plant this late in the year the new roots will not get enough time to establish healthy roots. Also you might pick a very few plants the second year, but I would wait for the third year.
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Susan - they need to be treated as individuals or a small group of 3-4. Each seedling will form it's own crown - eventually - and a group of 3-4 tiny seedlings will crown-up a bit faster. So you can seed them as you have been for germination but then you have to transplant then in small groups to individual cells or pots for growing on. They need to be hardened off just like any indoor grown plant before transplanting them and transplanted to the garden in the early spring while still cool and protected from wind and direct sun exposure until they are settled in. Dave
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