If you're only going to store your roots for a week or two, you can just put them in the refrigerator in whatever sort of packaging they were shipped in. You'd only have to store them in sand (sphagnum peat moss would be another option) if you were going to store them for several weeks or longer.

Now that was easy, thanks!

You're welcome. I didn't even refrigerate mine when I got them. I just put them, still in their original plastic bag (it did have air holes in it for ventilation), in the furthermost back corner of our pantry (it runs all the way back underneath our staircase) and left them there for a week or two until I got around to planting them. Storing them that way didn't hurt them at all. That likely was in early January of the year we planted our asparagus, and we had to wait for it to stop raining so we could plant the roots. Since it is warmer now in March than it would have been in January, I think refrigerated storage would work better as far as keeping the roots moist and cool. However, the world wouldn't end if you had to keep them stored at room temperature either, but if you have to do that, I'd put them somewhere cool and dark where the humidity remains relatively stable.

Great to know. I'm a bit apprehensive about them, that's silly, I know, but I don't want to have to do this again!!

Hailey, I planted asparagus for the first time this year too! I planted it last week. I have made some videos to document my garden progress (and to ask for help and suggestions), but still need to figure out how to get them on YouTube or somewhere. Anyway...I made an asparagus video...and I talked about being scared of the asparagus. It's such a commitment! Makes me very nervous.

I have 2 asparagus beds that are almost 4 ft wide and 8 ft long. I planted 10 crowns in each bed. I dug 2 trenches in each bed and in the trenches put some organic fertilizer. Then, I made 5 little mounds (about 18 inches apart) in each trench with soil, compost and the organic fertilizer. I sat the crowns on top of the mounds with the roots hanging over (they look like an octopus!) and covered the trenches with about 2 inches of soil.

Oh, and I tried to stagger the crowns, so that the crowns in the next trench over aren't exactly in line with the crowns in the other trench.

They haven't come up yet, so I don't know if my method will be successful...but, like you, I don't want to do this again!

How exciting! It's one of my favorite green veggies, second only to snap peas. Keep trying to upload your video onto YouTube, I would absolutely love to see them! I am about 1/6 done digging my 2 trenches, I think mine are about 12 ft long and 1 ft wide and 10" deep. This is the first time I've dug trenches, I opted not to till when I saw the massive amount of worms living there! Man, what a chore!! But I will do just what you did, I have my amendments ready and plan on digging for an hr tonight and hopefully be done by Saturday afternoon. Good luck!!!

Okiedawn, that was pure joy reading what you wrote!!! I am sitting alone cracking up, I will now stop worrying!!!!

I'm glad it made you laugh. Honestly, do not worry. You can't go wrong with asparagus. I suspect it is secretly bent on world domination and would grow if you planted it upside down in concrete.

Haha! :D

Dawn, I had always been told how carefully it had to be planted, trenched, covered gradually, yadda, yadda, yadda. One day I was watching a video of an Extension Agent in Colorado Here. After that I didn't worry to much about planting it. I started a new bed today because mine was a little mistreated while we were gone. In addition, I had all of those aggressive Jerusalem Artichokes that were too close to it and trying to take over everything. I just cut my loses and started over in a new location. Now I have a new problem because I have left-overs that need a new place to live. So I will have to find a new bed for a few tomorrow. I think the storm has now passed us and we only got 12/100 of an inch and no hail. The lightening was horrible and by the time I could get home we had a lot of gusty wind. Several of us rushed to the garden and threw greenhouse plastic over the hoops on the onion bed. By the time we got it covered, the worst of the storm was over. The Mesonet looked like there was hail around us, but we didn't get any.

PS - I also didn't measure 5 1/2 inches. LOL

Oh no! I have one more worry! One trench dug and asparagus planted. Am I to cover all of the plants or just the roots leaving the little shoot above ground then over time add more soil till trench is level? I'm really getting conflicting info.

I didn't think of that, Hailey. I just covered the entire thing with about 2 inches of soil. It hasn't come up yet. I hope I did it right.

yeah, I did that too! I'm sure it will all be great, makes sense

I'm so excited! After work, I went to look at my garden to see if there has been any progress. I have 4 asparagus popping their little heads up, my peas I planted from seed a week ago are now 1 inch tall, (the others I started indoors and transplanted too late haven't done a thing) my container carrots and beets are both germinating! It's encouraging to see the plants starting to come alive. The tomato seeds I started inside have completely halted in their growth, eh, I don't know what they want or what I could have done differently, but I'll probably give them a bit more time then toss them in the compost, buy ready to transplant plants, and try again next year. With the squash I started from seed indoors, I'm sure I got a bit too eager and started them too soon and kept them under too much light. I'll plant seeds when it warms up. Overall, YAY! Hazel, how is it going with your starts?

Hailey, my asparagus still is doing nothing! And it's been over 2 weeks. I wonder if my crowns were bad. I think the echinacea is sprouting. The carrots = nothing so far. I transplanted the lettuce and it's looking good. The peas and potatoes are coming up and looking good. Some ferns I planted around the fairy garden are coming up and looking good. The horseradish is up. All my perennial herbs look great. Strawberries look good. Onions and garlic are good. I have volunteer pumpkins (from last years Jack o lantern) are coming up in a random place. The beans haven't sprouted yet, but were only planted a week ago. Nasturtium looks okay. They had a bit of shock when I moved them outdoors. The wind was crazy for a couple of days after.

My indoor tomatoes and tomatillos really want to be planted outdoors. I think I'll prepare their beds tomorrow. I watched an episode of Oklahoma Gardening (it comes on at 11 on Saturday mornings) and the guy gave some specific instructions for tomatoes. I'm going to follow those. It involves digging a hole and adding things like lime, compost, and organic fertilizer then covering with black plastic for 10 days BEFORE planting. Also, I think we will build the new summer squash and zuchhini bed tomorrow. I'm moving summer squash from the back garden to the east garden.

I'm so bummed about the asparagus!!! I really needed for it to get with it NOW. I have two beds designated for it and it's just sitting there. Is it too late to try new crowns?!

It will take your asparagus a long time to come up and it really doesn't matter anyway since you won't be eating any of it this year. If it isn't up by the first of May then you might think about replacing it. It is only going to come up in early Spring AFTER it is established.

I agree with Carol that patience is required with asparagus crowns. It can take them quite a while to come up after they areDawn planted with many factors coming into play, including how long they were dormant and held in storage before being sold (and you have no control over that). Patience, patience, patience. Soil temperatures in parts of Oklahoma are still fairly cool.

Hailey, If the tomato seeds you started have halted their growth, they likely need to be fed. Assuming you started them in a sterile, soil-less seed-starting mix, there is no nutrition in that sort of mix, so after the plants are a couple of weeks old they need a feeding of some sort. The energy stored in the seeds will help them germinate but it cannot sustain life and growth indefinitely. Also, even slow, sluggish, small seedlings can take off and grow really quickly once they are hardened off outdoors and receiving natural sunlight. Indoor grow lights are not even close to being the equivalent of true sunlight and plants do much better once they are big enough to harden off and move outdoors, so don't give up on your tomato seedlings yet without trying a feeding and then hardening them off so they can have real sunlight.

Hazel, You wouldn't want to add lime if you already have alkaline soil. Lime makes soil more alkaline than it already is, and tomatoes actually prefer soil that is slightly acidic (6.0 to 6.8). Have you had a soil test and do you know your soil pH? My soil is highly alkaline (8.2) and I never use lime and never will because it would create more problems. I use sulfur and lots of organic matter to nudge the soil pH back more towards being neutral or slightly acidic. It has taken me years of soil improvement to get my soil pH down just to neutral (7). Hell will freeze over before I add lime to it and undo all those years of work to lower the pH. You have to be careful about adding things to soil if your soil doesn't specifically need those things. TV shows and the advice offered on them do not take into account that different people are gardening in soils with differing pH values and may not need lime added, or may be causing harm to their pH by adding lime.

There are many "hole" variations of digging out a planting hole and adding specific amendments to improve the soil before planting tomatoes, but I've just always amended the entire growing area rather than focusing on a hole because overall soil improvement and soil health is my goal. The hole variations can work but aren't necessary to success. The most famous hole method on GW is the Earl's Hole method, used by Earl Cadenhead in Ohio who often got 40 lbs. of fruit per plant (obviously in a kinder, rainier, cooler climate than ours). He no longer posts on GW or TV (due to declining health I believe) but I'll link an old thread of his and there are a lot of useful comments there, including one from Bill P. who gardened near Dallas, posting as "Gone Fishin'", and Bill (may he rest in peace) mentioned maybe just digging a trench and amending the whole trench instead of digging individual holes. One of the things you'll notice in the comments is that some people mention the various things they add/substitute based on their soil pH in order to make the necessary pH adjustments that work for them with their soil. Fusion, for example, adds ashes to his acidic soil to raise the pH into the right range for tomatoes. You cannot argue with the Earl's Hole method because clearly he had great success with it, but it involves a lot of digging (his holes are big!) and each person would have to customize it a bit depending on their soil pH in their specific location. Also, just so no one misunderstands, Earl was buying and using composted peat humus, not peat moss, and one should not substitute peat moss for the peat humus in this specific method. Composted peat humus is like compost whereas peat moss can hold too much water when it gets wet and also can be almost impossible to rewet when it gets too dry.

Earl's Hole Method of Planting Tomatoes

I suspect that people adding lime are trying to ensure calcium is available in the mistaken belief that BER is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil, which once was a widely-held belief. We now know, through modern-day research and a better understanding of plants, that BER is not caused by a lack of available calcium in the soil so much as it is caused by the way in which plants distribute calcium via their vascular system, and the best way to prevent BER is to keep plants evenly moist so they are distributing calcium steadily.

Dawn

I'm so glad I said something last night about adding lime! This guy on TV used to be the host of the OSU Oklahoma Gardening show, and his garden is lovely. I'll check my soil first. The raised beds' soil should be fairly healthy. It has purchased garden ready soil and I added my homemade compost last year. I saw earthworms and the weeds pulled out easily when I was cleaning it out. I have too many tomato plants and the raised beds aren't going to be enough, I'm afraid. I never know how close I can really plant tomatoes, but those beds are about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. There are two of them. The other one back there is for peppers.

SO....I was planning on doing the holes for the tomatoes that have to go in the plain ol' ground. Our big garden has (or will have after today) 8 raised beds, the wine bottle bed and pallet of lettuce, but there's still lots of empty space. I'll check the soil before planting. I think it's lacking something. The watermelons did okay there last summer, but something caused the seminole pumpkins to NOT thrive. I only got one pumpkin--that's it! I suspected it was something lacking in the soil. (Neither the pumpkins or watermelons were in raised beds).

What about epsom for tomatoes? My neighbor (the only other gardener in my neighborhood) adds epsom. Her soil looks amazing.

...and I'll try to be patient with the asparagus!

Good luck with your tomatoes, Hailey! Mine have been "up potted" at least once and they are outgrowing their pots. I gave mine a "feeding" when I up potted them, like Dawn said above.

And congrats on the asparagus and all the things that are doing well! It's so exciting.

This is a little off topic, but I'm responding to my post above. I did a soil test. I collected the soil this morning. Let it dry. Then did the tests. Then noticed that they neglected to put a chart in my package. Errr. I looked up a chart online.

The pH test is a pale green. From what I can tell, that means either neutral or slightly alkaline.

The nitrogen and phosphorus tests are so pale, so that means they're low? Seriously the phosphorus is so pale it's barely even tinted blue.

The potassium test was slightly cloudly...so, it's high?

I'm going to do another test tomorrow. Just in case I did something wrong.

I doubt you did something wrong. Those little over-the-counter soil test kits are just that way.

Most people I know who have used them also get pale test results even in soil we believe should have more than adequate nutrient levels, so I kinda take the paleness with a grain of salt. Also, be sure you are looking at them soon and deducing the color. The longer they sit, the more the color will fade and that can give you an inaccurate reading.

I didn't want to cause you undue concern over adding a handful of lime. It is just that every one of us has soil that differs from other folks' soil, so we have to be careful not to add anything that might negatively affect our soil pH or nutrient levels. A lot of damage is done, unintentionally, by new gardeners (and sometimes by older, seasoned ones too!) adding some of this and some of that because someone told them to do so without them actually knowing if their soil needed to have that substance added to it. Some folks in OK have very acidic soil, some have very alkaline soil, and some sit squarely in between with neutral soil. I just believe it is important to know whether your soil needs something instead of just adding it because someone said to.

I'm sure the guy you were watching on TV is a wonderful person and a smart gardening expert, but that doesn't mean his recommendations are right for every person in the state, depending on what sort of soil they start out with. Folks like me with very alkaline soil and/or with soil naturally high in calcium wouldn't and shouldn't add lime. That's just the point I was trying to make.

One way to figure out what will work best for you would be to add the lime to some holes and not others (preferably with all other things being equal) and then see if you see any difference at all in plant performance. The way I have found what works best for me with my soil and growing conditions has been to try many differnt things, regularly using methods that work and discarding those that don't. Don't sell your native soil short. Just because it has not yet been amended doesn't necessarily mean it isn't great soil. Even my crappy red clay had a lot going for it when we bought this place---it was high in nutrients, but just had texture/tilth/drainage issues due to a lack of organic matter. And, of course, it has been a constant battle to keep the pH as low as I want because our local water is high pH also. So, all we really had to fix was the organic matter to fix the clay and that's not a hard fix. Trust me, that's relatively easy compared to starting with poor sand, for example, that is low in pretty much all nutrients....and filled with root knot nematodes on top of that.

In my lifetime, I have seen people add all kinds of weird stuff to their tomato holes, and I haven't felt compelled to copy what they were doing because I couldn't see that it made a difference. Generally a lot of what people do to their soil to make their tomato plants happy is more about them than it is about their soil. Even in our earliest years when our soil was nowhere near as well-improved as it is now, we got incredibly good plant growth and great yields, so I mostly just tried to add enough organic matter to ensure the soil would drain well and didn't worry or fret about this nutrient or that one. When you consistently add organic matter to your soil, the nutrients pretty much take care of themselves. It sounds too good to be true, but it is true.

Epsom salts may or may not be helpful depending on the soil you're starting out with. Just be sure to use the recommended amount if you choose to use it. Sometimes people think that if a certain quantity is recommended, then they'll use twice as much because it will be twice as good. Instead, they sometimes overdose their plants. Remember that nutrients all work together in balance. If you have an excess of one nutrient, it can interfere in the plant's ability to take up and use other nutrients. I try to add lots of compost and steer away from adding one particular nutrient or another specifically to avoid getting my nutrients out of balance. The use of epsom salts won't really affect how your soil looks. It is just a water-soluble nutrients the plant roots can take up and use.

I don't bother with soil tests much. I just watch my plants. If they look happy, are growing well and are producing well, I assume my soil has all it needs to feed the plants what they need. If the plants are unhappy, I look at all the available conditions---rain or lack of such, air temperatures, soil temperatures, etc. and try to figure out what is making the plants unhappy. It isn't always a nutrition issue. Often it is too much of something I cannot control---rainfall, wind, abnormally high or low air temperatures, herbicide drifting through the air because someone near me is improperly applying it, etc.

I would not necessarily use last year's plant performance as a benchmark because last year's rainfall was abnormally high in most areas of the state, and too much rain is worse than not enough rain as the excess moisture can clog up roots and prevent them from taking up nutrients from the soil. It sounds bizarre, but it is a common problem in wet years.

My best guess about your Seminole pumpkin is that it either wasn't getting enough sunlight (it is a sun-loving beast) or that the soil was too wet for it. It is rare for Seminole to grow poorly or to be non-productive, so I'd chalk that up to the weather being too crappy for it last year. Be sure you don't plant it until the weather and soil are really warm. If planted too early into cold soil, it can stay unhappy and nonproductive for months. Wait for the heat before you plant it and all winter squash.

Don't get so caught up in trying to perfectly prepare and plant that you forget to have fun. One of the most successful tomato growers I know did exactly this: she rototilled her soil to get rid of the existing plants. She planted her tomato plants into the ground with no fertilizer added and no soil amendments. She didn't cage or stake her plants. She didn't water or weed. Soon she had 6' tall tomato plants surrounded by 6' tall grasses and weeds. She just waded through the weeds and grasses to harvest her tomatoes and she was perfectly happy with that. She got huge yields that made her farmer/rancher dad a little green with envy. He couldn't figure out how she got such great yields from such a messy, untended garden when his yields from a beautifully-prepared, well-tended garden plot weren't nearly as high. It made him crazy. Tomato plants want to grow. They have a biological imperative to produce seed to ensure another generation will follow them, so one way or another, they will set fruit. I don't think they need all the soil prep and fertilizer that some folks give them. If the nutrients are in the soil, the roots will find them and use them. It can be very simple. It doesn't have to be hard or complicated, and it isn't rocket science. Just keep it fun and (if possible) relaxing.

Happy Growing!

Dawn

I am having fun! Even doing the soil test was fun--I felt like a chemist. I got the same results this time too. I looked at them the recommended amount of time. Low in nitrogen and phosphorus. High in potassium and slightly alkaline. I dug down a little deeper to get the sample this time. So...the results mean nothing? How do I know my soil pH then? Send it off somewhere?

See...that's what weird about the Seminole. (and I was shocked and disappointed because I've heard they are insane and was expecting something wonderful to happen) I planted them towards the end of June and they just never looked healthy really. That area gets lots of sun in the summer until about 5 then it's slightly shaded because of some trees. Oh well. I'll just keep working on it.

I did dig the holes for the tomatoes (Hardening off this week and will plant on Saturday). I didn't add anything other than compost and a little bit of organic fertilizer.

Sorry for getting off topic.

You get a professional soil test from someplace like OSU. You follow their instructions about how to dig up the soil from sample areas and mix it together. You send them the soil and they send you test results along with recommendations on what you need to add to your soil. It is very easy. There also are private testing companies, but the OSU soil test is perfect for what you need. The $10 basic test is a nice starting point and you also can have them test for other things for an additional fee, though those other things are not as important unless you're having nutritional issues. Nitrogen can test low at some times of the year because cooler temperatures can make it less available even when it is there in the soil.

Results from some home test kits can be fairly meaningless. Much depends on what brand OTC test kit you bought. You can Google and read articles written by folks who have compared soil test kit results with their results from professional soil tests and some have found the test kits fairly accurate and some haven't.

Here's a link to the OSU Soil Lab:

OSU Soil Water and Forage Analytical Lab

Give Seminole another chance and maybe it will do better. Last year was an odd year. I couldn't keep squash or pumpkins alive in my garden because of the excess moisture and the diseases they cause. After 24" of rain fell in May and another foot in June, I was just happy to have any plants left alive at all (mostly corn, beans, tomatoes and peppers, and late in the summer, the watermelons). Some years we just have to be glad for what we do get because the weather can make it difficult. I expect this year's hotter, drier weather will lead to a bumper crop of squash, winter squash and pumpkins.

Now to get back on topic (grin), my asparagus plants started producing spears about a month earlier than normal and we have been harvesting insane amounts. I have been freezing a lot of it because we don't particularly want to eat it every single day. Since it started early, I suspect it will finish up early, but we're still getting big spears (some as big around as my thumb) so far. Fresh asparagus tastes so good and so does asparagus that is picked/frozen the same day. That's the kind of asparagus madness and fun you have to look forward to every year once the plants are established.

Y'all! One teeny tiny baby asparagus spear popped up today!

And my beans came up. And I think even some carrots! What a great day.

The only concerning thing is the mushrooms that came up in the asparagus bed! What in the world? It's not rained here in ages. Maybe I've over watered.

Congrats on the sprouting veggies! Mushrooms can merely indicate the presence of organic matter (upon which they feed as they grow). They are not necessarily an indicator that the soil is too wet outdoors, though that usually is what they indicate indoors when you're sprouting seeds in sterile, soil-less growing mediums. Some mushrooms and other fungi still can be present outdoors even in some stages of drought. It always amazes me to see mushrooms sprout in certain areas when we're in drought and get a big rainfall of, oh, a quarter-inch or half-inch of rain. You wouldn't think mushrooms could quickly sprout after that first miniscule rainfall after weeks or months of drought, but they can. In your garden, they aren't a problem, but if looking at them bothers you, you can remove them. To me, they are just an indicator of good organic matter and microbial life.