I would wait to harvest until next year and then very sparsely.

It probably wouldn't hurt to soak a day before planting, . In the mean time I would store in the crisper unit of the fridge to keep them dormant. Do not allow them to freeze.

You want to really amend the planting site before planting. The deeper you plant the crowns, the larger the spears, but the less spears you will get. If they are planted shallow, you will get more spears, but they will be skinny.

I have had asparagus before and although the taste was wonderful the spears were not very large. Part of that I attributed to it being a fairly new bed, but now I'll bet it was not planted deeply enough. Thanks Gary.

I plan to start a bed this year if this snow ever goes away. I have one 4x12 raised bed that I am going to move to the middle of the garden where grass is not as much of a problem, and it should have really good soil. How many do you think I should put in that bed, planted deeply. There seems to be a lot of difference of opinion on this subject. I would like to put as many as possible.

"Harvest in One Year" that is awesome! Even they won't produce any spear, but at least they have nice foliage! Do Horn Seeds have enough stock?

One quick question, What is best time to plant in ground? Based on that I will shop, as Horn Seed is little faraway from my place. -Chandra

They had plenty in stock and it was 6.99 for 10 of them. I have in my notes 50 degree soil temp. to plant them. So there is some time.

Oklahoma State University has a fact sheet for almost everything, although sometimes they are a bit out of date with regards to recommended varieties that have been superceded by newer releases. However, all the info on how to plant, when to plant, how to fertilize, harvest, etc. is still good info.

I've linked the fact sheet on growing asparagus below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Asparagus Culture in the Home Garden

Chandra, have you tried Ellison Feed & Seed in Norman? They are located at 115 S. Porter - I think that is around the Main St. & Porter St. corner area, on the SE corner or close by. Phone is 360-0370. I think I remember someone posting last year that they bought 1015's there last year for $1.50 or so a bunch, and they were very healthy and fresh. We used to go there a lot when we lived in Norman. It is a family owned business, too, and I love those kind of places. We used to get our dogs dipped there for free, too. They offer that several times a year. I've also heard they have pet products for as cheap as you'll find on the Internet, like Frontline.

Susan

Some of the biggest spears in my patch are the ones that come up from self seeded plants, which seems to negate the "plant deep for big spears idea." And the very biggest spears in the bed are on a plant raised from seeds over 25 years ago. This plant never puts up more than 5-6 spears a year but they are HUGE. That clearly points to a genetic trait. In my experience the older plants get the larger the spears will be. I've been raising asparagus for over 35 years, both from seed and plants.

The important thing is to allow new plants time to get established before picking any spear. A general rule is to pick no spear smaller than a small finger when deciding when to start picking a new planting. In following years you may still have big spears the first of June, but that's the time to stop picking in Oklahoma in order not to stress the plants too much.

Susan, I know Ellison Feed & Seed, its on my way to office! But not visited yet this season, I will check in Monday.

Dawn, Thank you for OSU factsheet, they not mentioned any specific planting date... it says planting can be done in late fall, winter, or early spring. I am not sure which is best best time to plant?

I bought Jersey Gain asparagus crowns from Horn Seeds. They are much much bigger than what I saw at Lowe's and WM. Now I need to look for permanent home for them.

As usual, I also picked up few more seeds, Rhubarb, and Elephant Garlic Cloves. Gentleman at the store told I can plant Elephant Garlic right away, so bought three large bulbs, first time saw such a huge Garlic cloves.

Chandra,

The best time to plant is as soon as you find the plants in stores and can plant them. Asparagus plants are easiest to find in mid-winter and that's when most folks plant them. It can be much harder to find them in stores in the fall. The earlier you plant them, the better, because it gives them a chance to become well-established before our terrible summer temperatures arrive. So, if you have them now, plant them as soon as your soil is workable.

Dawn

When I planted my asparagus bed I dug trenches at three different depths: 2 ft, 1.5 ft and 1 ft. The idea being that as the ground warmed up in the spring the more shallow plants would begin to come up first, then the next deepest...etc. This tends to spread out the harvest. Or at least that was the theory. It does seem to work out that way as a general rule, but I am starting to have some plants coming up from seed and they are of course quite shallow.

I myself would probably only harvest one spear from each plant this first year. More next year, then as normal the following year.

I have planted my asparagus crown this evening!!! I hope to harvest few spears this year or will let them grow into beautiful foliage.

Dawn, that was good to know (what you told Chandra) I will go ahead and plant.

Ezzirah,

In general, my motto is "plant 'em if you've got 'em". Well, except when it is -22 degrees outside and sleeting....but I don't think anyone here would do that anyway.

You could plant asparagus in January if you found it that earl.y and it likely would be fine, notwithstanding the fact that you live in a state where the temperatures can be 20 degrees below zero one day and then 60 or 80 degrees less than a week later. Almost any cold-hardy plants like asparagus, horseradish, rhubarb, strawberries sold bare root, etc., can be planted as soon as you see them in the stores. In fact, it is better for them to get out of those plastic bags and directly into the ground as soon as possible.

Our Wal-Mart just got all their bare root stuff like that put out in the garden center within the last 3 or 4 days (seed potatoes and onion sets arrived a couple of weeks ago and then the rest this week), and their timing this year is pretty good because this week there is nice weather that will encourage people to plant the bare-root plants sooner rather than later. Bare-root plants left in the plastic bags too long often become diseased.

I bought healthy, bare-root strawberries yesterday and will plant them later today to enlarge our small berry patch. I love planting season!

I have put off planting asparagus forever because the bermuda and Johnson grasses encroach upon my garden from outside the fence continually. Because of asparagus' height, I've wanted to plant it along the north fence but know keeping the grass out will be a major ordeal. So, now I'm thinking I may plant in the bed that is second closest to the fence where the grass would be easier to keep out. Then, I could use the bed along the fence to grow something tall like pole beans that wouldn't be shaded too much by the asparagus.

I hope your asparagus does well for you.

Dawn

What's that saying...."Year One, pick none. Year Two, pick a few. Year Three, lots for me.". Only at our house, it was Year Three...great restraint for me.

I bought crowns at Horn this time last year and they were the three-year old ones (or so the package said). The package said 10 crowns but I actually had 12 in the bag. They sprouted last year but I didn't pick anything and let them go on to the fern stage (which was pretty...sort of).

In addition to the crowns, this year I started some UC-157 from seed. They germinated fairly well and now I have little 'fern-y' looking six inch sprouts. My question is...now what? Do I do the whole potting up process like other veggies or do I skip that step and put them in the ground? If so, how large should they be before planting outside? Stupid question, I know, but I've never tried them from seed before.

Lynn

Thanks again Dawn, I will get to planting while the weather is good. I have a lot to do out there now! Thanks!