skip to main content

Vegetable Gardening

Female Jersey Knight Asparagus?

12 years ago

I planted 8 jersey knight asparagus crowns this spring and all of them have come up. However, one of the plants appears to be female as there are now little berries on it. What should I do at this point? What are my options? I don't mind replacing it next year with another crown but I also don't know if there is any benefit in keeping the female plant. Thanks!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

digdirt2
12 years ago
It's your choice. Some keep them if they have the room and the patience to grow out some new seedlings and cull them. Since you only have 8 crowns to begin with you may want more to get any decent production. But keep in mind that many of them will also be female.

Based on prior discussions here about this it is clear that others pull them. Since the point of using the all-male variety in the first place is increased production and larger spears, I see little point in keeping the few females that slip thru the original culling.

Dave
denninmi
12 years ago
Yup, it's just a choice/decision to make.

I'm of the opposite opinion of Dave. I think the Jersey male asparagus are OK, but not significantly better than my old standby open pollinated Mary Washington type to merit the additional expense. The old OP kind gives me oodles of babies that I can then transplant back into the patch.
Related Discussions
Asparagus -- add clay soil or sand?
Q
Comments (5)
Can anyone tell the difference in the different Jersey varieties? 4 years ago I planted 10 crowns of Jersey Knight, Jersey Supreme and Jersey Giant. I cannot tell much of a difference, though I haven't kept track of how many spears I have harvested from each plant, just looking down the row it looks about the same. I am thinking with just a few plants it won't make much difference, maybe if you had acres it would show a difference in volume. This year I wanted 20 more plants and the Garden Center I bought from only had Jersey Knight and Jersey Supreme so I bought 10 of each. I planted them March 20 and as of last night I can see 18 plants. I live in WI and it was 80 when I planted them but now we are much more normal with getting frosts almost every night.
...See More
Skinny Asparagus and related questions
Q
Comments (3)
The growth of your new bed is normal. New ones will come as conditions permit..i.e., warmth and moisture. This is assuming you prepared your new bed well. Scott Walker (of Jersey Asparagus Farms) explained to me the difficulty of maintaining 100% male plants. As tightly as they try to control production, a few "errant" bees invariably intrude and cause some cross-pollination, so the Jersey Knights might typically turn out to be only 96% or so all-male. I was lucky I suppose...mine turned out to be 100% male (6 year-old bed). Do your own thing, but I would yank the females and replace them. They are not only less productive, but also produce the berries which ultimately become new plants which your productive plants consider weeds competing for nutrients. Hal
...See More
Curly asparagus
Q
Comments (2)
Same here - injury. Either a soil dwelling pest that nibbles on it or most often, compacted or rocky soil that injures the spears or twists them as they are emerging. About all that bed gets is compost dressing every year and a little dried blood for nitrogen Sounds hungry. ;) Mine all get a good heavy 2x a year feeding of composted manure several inches thick and intermittent feedings with compost and manure tea once harvest is finished. Lots of water too during the summer. Dave
...See More
Jersey Knight crowns in Canada? Container asparagus?
Q
Comments (7)
In order to identify the female plants I think you'd have to grow them to seed bearing age (3 years?) - and you might want to make sure they don't get a chance to drop potentially-female seed before weeding them out. Some writers suggest you don't want any seed to drop anyway, to avoid overcrowding the bed with new volunteer plants. As for shipping across borders, many US companies do ship seed to Canada but I haven''t found any willing to ship asparagus root. Whether that's because they're prohibited, and whether it also applies to other plants, I don't know.
...See More
ikea_gw
Original Author
12 years ago
Jersey knight is a hybrid variety. Does this mean if I plant the seeds from the berries the new plants won't actually be Jersey knight asparagus?
digdirt2
12 years ago
Does this mean if I plant the seeds from the berries the new plants won't actually be Jersey knight asparagus?

Sure. But that doesn't mean they won't be good and edible.

Dave
ikea_gw
Original Author
12 years ago
Would the female behave more like the male if I remove the berries as soon as they appear? I understand that berry production diverts energy from making spears for next year.
digdirt2
12 years ago
Nope. Sorry. There is no way to neuter her.
dgbeig
12 years ago
A little late to the conversation, but I planted asparagus crowns for my first time this spring.
I planted the Mary Washington.

All plants come up and 1 seems to have berries too.
(i thought they would all get them eventually, but according to what I just read, it's a one and only female????)

So, I can take the berries off that plant and sprout them as I would other seeds, and get more asparagus to plant out?
How long would that take? When can I plant them out?
Is it worth it?

Should that plant be pulled?
I haven't grown asparagus because i'm impatient, but 10 crowns for $3 was an offer I couldn't refuse.
denninmi
12 years ago
Yes, you can harvest the berries for seed after they turn completely red. You can plant the seed right away -- they may germinate this year or possibly not until next spring after a cool period in the ground. Seed germinates in about 10 to 21 days after sowing IF it's going to germinate right away. You could plant them out in about 4 weeks, as soon as they fill the cell with roots (assuming you're planting in cell packs). It takes about 3 years to harvest from seed, versus 2 for crowns. And yes, its definitely worth it if you have space for them.

Related Stories

COOL-SEASON CROPS Cool-Season Vegetables: How to Grow Asparagus

By Marianne Lipanovich

Patience pays off with this harbinger of spring that lasts for decades in the garden

Sponsored

More Discussions

Veggie Tales - April 2024

53

What will leftover leeks from last year do?

3

Do carpenter bee traps work?

7

Corn seeds during a frost?

15

How long do you harden off seedlings?

4