Sheri, it would not be possible to grow asparagus as an annual. In one year, the plants are just not large enough to produce edible size spears. In PA it took 3 to 4 years of growth to produce edible spears. Here the plants are basically growing twice as fast. Our plants are about 16 months old. Really a dormant season is necessary for asparagus to grow properly. Here I have read that in northern, and possibly central Florida it might be possible but it is a challenge. James Stephens book "Vegetable Gardening in Florida" suggests trying to mow the plants down in January and August. Normally the spears are produced pretty much all at once in early spring, you pick them for 5 or 6 weeks and then let the plants grow to store energy in the roots for next year's crop. I'm trying to force a sort of dormancy by withholding water as much as possible for two weeks in July, two in August and then cutting all plants down. This year they re-grew and actually the wife and I had a couple of handfuls to eat. They are growing now, I will mow them in January and see if we can get any harvest in Feb. or March. Since the climate here is really not what they like, the plants may gradually decline and I will lose them, but I'm giving it a shot. These plants were supposed to be an all male "Jersey" variety but they were evidently not true to variety since we had seeds and seedlings in my PA garden which I moved here. We use a lot of compost and make sure they are well watered most of the time. Don't know if it will end up working or not!

I have no idea what kind of bananas I have, but it's one that has tall plants. Not a dwarf, that's for sure. It's almost up to the roof now. It's going to be a good 10 feet tall, I believe. I'm hoping it's an ice cream banana. I love those, and they are pretty common around here. I had a Praying Hands in SW FL, but it never got big enough to have fruit. I ended up selling it when I moved. I also had a thousand fingers that died during a particularly wet period.

That is what caused me to pay attention to that one, with so much Spicebush ST traffic these days.. Nonetheless, If I were forced to make a statement unjustified by sample size, I would say that the blacks are not as large as the yellows. What do you think? Many of the yellows that I see are as large as any Giant (larger than many, because Giants vary). Fanciful thought tempered by appreciation of the real : Although it would be a thrill to have a 10-foot wingspan beauty in the yard everyday, I never would exchange the numerous normal sized butterfiles for it.

I've noticed that plants put in in late summer/ early fall, grow more slowly than the same ones started in spring. (shortening day length? too hot?) Can you tell me how to estimate days to maturity for fall planted vegies? I apologize if this is a duplicate. I posted a similar question a few days ago, but now I can't find it.