Topic: asparagus

[tim]

jamie - surely the browning & curling is typical of beetle damage to the emerging spear?

I reckon that that's my problem.

[Mrs Ava]

50 spears every couple of days!!  From how many crowns??  I have cut and eaten 2 spears.  Yes, you heard me, just 2 spears!  Mine are being very slow, or have given up the ghost!  I have now interplanted the sparagrass bed with lettuce to make some use of the ground!   hey ho, globe artichokes is another tale, have 18 so far!!!! ;D

[chriszog]

A couple of my spears have browned a bit but I put it down to some frost damage?
Regards
Chriszog

[tim]

When & where does one see asparagus beetle??

[jamie]

Not sure that the browning is asparagus beetle, it may be soil based pests such as millepedes that I have trouble with most crops. The asparagus beetle only seems to get interested when the spears are left to open to ferns. The beetles can obviously smell the food source. When they have mated the eggs are laid on the ferns and shortly afterwards the developing grubs start devouring the ferns. I've squashed the grubs in my fingers and have sprayed derris dust over the eggs/grubs in the past. The asparagus beetles like other beetles can fly. The most damage from the emerging ferns is from slugs.

The fifty spears every 2 days is from 20 crowns. I'm on the south coast. I do have trouble growing carrots/parsnips/spring onions, they don't seem to germinate very well, going to fill in the gaps this weekend.



Jamie

[tim]

Thanks.

[derbex]

I think that bl**dy pheasant has been at mine >:( I thought it funny that there wasn't any new growth so I dug around to find a stump of a frond that looked like it had been cut.

I'll have to try putting some bird scarers up -the plot is going to look like a resting home for old CDs

Jeremy

[Lizard Man]

50 spears every two days from only 20 crowns. That sounds very impressive, Jamie. How old are your plants? And how big are the spears you harvest?

I have about 10 crowns which are two and three years old. The younger ones I am leaving until next year, as they are still producing weedy, thin spears. But I've only had a handful of pickings this season from the others (and the base of the spears are too woody to eat). The first lot to come up were caught by the frost (as happened last year) - the brown and curling spears mentioned here I think. And now the growth of new spears is very slow (despite some being very thick in size).

What do people give to feed their asparagus plants?