I have been using salt on my asparagus bed ever since it developed fusarium crown rot which I discovered 4 years after I put in the bed. I use about 1/2-3/4 lb food grade rock salt late winter on a bed maybe 20 feet long. I have quick draining sandy soil. Asparagus is one of the most salt tolerant plants known and for generations, growers controlled weeds by salting. When chemical pre-emergents entered the market after WWII, growers switched and then fusariaum crown and root rots began to invade beds. Salt prevents the fusarium rots, and as I can attest, also cures it You might want to take a look at the following: â Rock Salt Supresses Fusarium Crown and Root Rot of AsparagusâÂÂ: openagricola.nal.usda.gov/Record/IND92009783

The absolute BEST mulch to use is cocoa shell mulch. Approximately 2 - 3 inches will keep most weeds down, and there's no ill effect upon the soil. Lasts for a couple of years before it needs refreshing. The serious down side is that this stuff can be VERY poisonous to dogs, who are attracted by it's chocolatey fragrance. So I wouldn't use it unless you have a jump proof fence around your garden. Cocoa shell is somewhat available in the MD/PA areas, as a by product of Hershey's chocolate making process in PA. Not sure about other areas.

Four years after I put in my asparagus bed, it became clear that it had fusarium crown rot-- very low yield,ferns falling over and dying back as early as August. A little research revealed that although asparagus beds had been salted for hundreds of years to prevent weeds, that it also prevented fusarium crown rot, which began to appear in commercial beds when the practice stopped and chemical pre-emergents began to be used. Test plots, some salted some not, had fusarium crown rot introduced. It took in the unsalted plots, not in the salted. So I began to sow food grade rock salt in late winter. By the third year I had great production, strong ferns and no early die back. I've been doing it for some 10 years now. No soil problems, my groundcover thymes still grow right up to and into the bed and have to be pulled out. And I get great asparagus.

Brumby I would like to hear what happens about that Sounds like a fine thing you have, good established asparagus beds I have tried to establish one several times with no success But at my home now, in Barrie, Ontario have a bed that is now in it s third year. I did harvest a little this year but I have read and can see it that it is after the third year, as in next spring that I will have lots of asparagus The salt idea is good Some of the old ways are the best I can weed my bed fine just now but I have read that as the plants mature weeding can be a problem I am feeling very proud of my asparagus bed