Topic: asparagus

[straush]

i have a new allotment and as i was clearing it i noticed asapragus stems.  i assume these must be from last year and just not harvested.   do i harvet them now ? or leave them ?

i was told the guy that has the allotment 2 years ago looked after it very well but last year newbies did not even bother to lcear it - so i became mine this year.  that why i assume it is asparagus that shlould have been harvested this year.

[Trevor_D]

Lucky you! Most of us just get bramble & convulvulous!

No - you can't cut it now. The season is from late April till mid-June. Just weed it and let the foiliage die down early winter; clean the bed off and wait for for April!!

[straush]

thanks  -  trust me i had a good share of bramble, thistle and couch grass.

being new to it all - i was lucky someone pointed out to me its asparagus  :)

[grotbag]

wait until the foliage has died then cut back to ground level,and cover with manure. Thats the way i do it.

[saddad]

The trick is too remember where it is at the start of the new year so you don't dig it over before the shoots come up!!
 :-[

[grotbag]

if you dont know how old it is ,i would play it safe next year and not pick to much.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Wait till it does back, then mulch it well with anything organic. That saves the weed roots getting in among it, and feeds it at the same time. How many stems does it have to each clump? If there are several, you can probably pick it next year; if only one or two, then it's not sufficiently established yet.

[hopalong]

Can any one tell me whether it is feasible to transplant asparagus and, if so, when and how? Winter, when the plants are completely dormant? I have a couple of healthy one-year-old plants that are in the wrong place and I want to add them to the rows that I have planted elsewhere on my plot.

[artichoke]

When you buy asparagus they are sent to you as one/two year old bare roots with advice to get back into the ground as soon as possible. That shows that transplantation of one year roots is OK.

Nurseries send out their bare roots in March, so it looks as if early spring is what they have found to be best.

All my 20 bare roots were received and planted in March five years ago and are alive and  very productive.

[hopalong]

Thanks for the helpful advice, artichoke. 

Incidentally, I find that mulching with pelleted chicken manure after the spears have died down works extremely well.  It's certainly better than horse manure.

[artichoke]

Thanks for the idea of chicken manure. I have used it recently with good effect on other veg, but had not thought of putting it on the asparagus.