Pruning asparagus??

[Icyberjunkie]

My asparagus plants must be about 6 feet tall and are a bit of a jungle which in itself is not a problem.  However, they are shading my veg quite a bit which is noticable in the speed of growth.

Can I prune them back a bit or will it damage the plant to much.  If so how much can I get away with?

Iain

[Icyberjunkie]

[tim]

NO!

'grass' is more valuable than easy grow veg. Like daffs etc, it needs all the 'feedback' it can get.Wait till the ferns are yellow & then cut down to 2".

[Svea]

maybe you can run some string around the ferns and pull them into a tighter shape? would that help? i have done that to my rhubarb which spread wide and got in the way. now the stalks are held together with a piece of string, tidy and out of the way, but allowing the 'juice' to go back into the plant later on :)

svea

[Icyberjunkie]

maybe you can run some string around the ferns and pull them into a tighter shape? would that help?:)
svea

I hadnlt thought of the obvious so may well give that try Svea and do it in batches - my asparagus bed is 30' long (the full length of my lottie) and 4' wide!  Thanks for that.   

..and thanks Tim.   Thats twice you've saved that bed already!!  ;D

[tim]

I like Svea's solution - the 'hedge' often collapses all over the place in heavy rain or gales.