Asparagus from Seed

[delboy]

This year I have bought two types of asparagus seed with the intention of seeing how they do. My existing beds are fine, but taking the long term view, and cost, into account..

Well, having read through various books and pamphlets and checked A4All via the search facility.. I cannot find answers to:

1  I have started them in pots and put 3/4 seeds in each 3" pot. Do I try and pot on individually or do I rip out the so-called weaker/smaller ones to leave just one sproutling?

2  The usual advice in all the books is, for seed raised asparagus "plant them on the flat"  Really? Shouldn't I be earthing them up, if only a little?

3  Is this planting on the flat idea just to develop the root complex so that transplantation next year puts them in a permanent bed, or is where I put them this year going to be the permanent bed?

4  If where I put them now is their final resting place(usually the story with so much of my efforts...), does that mean I have to prepare the gound as deeply as I always have for the crowns I have used up to now?

Thanks in appreciation

Derek   ::)

[delboy]

[jennym]

Have grown all my asparagus plants from seed and did it this way:
Started them in seed trays, and left them all there until they were big enough to handle as seedlings. The seed trays were pretty deep so your pots should be fine.
I wouldn't thin them out yet, as I found that I broke a few when trying to transplant them. I put some into a sort of "nursery" area by the main bed and put some direct into their positions. The ones that I put direct into their final positions seemed to do better than the ones in the nursery bed that were transplanted into final positions the next year, seems they don't like disturbance. They were all put in on the flat, and the ridges were built up over the subsequent years as they grew bigger, the soil being lighter in that area through double digging and the addition of sand and muck (I have very heavy clay so it needed doing) but the ridges need drawing up at least annually I find, as the soil washes down.
Hope this helps. I don't have a huge bed, but have decent crops from it.
The one very important thing I almost forgot to add is that you should put a piece of thin cane in next to each one - they are so tiny to start with that it's dead easy to damage them when weeding, and you can't see where they are at all in the winter, and you tend to lose them.

[delboy]

Thanks a bundle for that!

[cambourne7]

I was just going to plant mine in situ and am a little worried now!

what about starting them off in my toilet roll in peat pot combo? 2 seeds in each pot and then planting out when big enough this way there is very little root disturbance?

[flowerlady]

So glad you wrote that jennym ... sowed mine from seeds this year ... I did manage to get them into 3" pots but will leave them there for quite a while now  ;D

There's no rush seeing as we are now in for the long wait ... three years before a good harvest !!  :o ::) ;D

[jennym]

cambourne7  - I think while they are that small, it doesn't really matter; the comment about root disturbance really applies as an observation on plants that had been in the soil, and their roots have had a chance to spread a little.
flowerlady - just in case you were thinking you could, I wouldn't leave them in the pots for more than a couple of months  ;D

[flowerlady]

Not quite sure where I was going to plant them jenny, but whatever I do, it will certainly be after the spring rush is over !!  ;)

[cambourne7]

flower lady

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to be born and time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.     Ecclesiastes, 3:1-2

SO TRUE

[flowerlady]

Absolutely  ;D

[cambourne7]

Hi Guys,

Just to let you know that i have almost finished my 2ft by 10ft asparagus bed.

Dug a shovel depth and filled it with a bag of sand, and 3 wheelbarrows of horse manure and 100ltr farmyard manure.

Going to leave it for a week before i add the raised bed and add the compost.

I have 10, 1 year old seedlings to plant and 20 Asparagus - Mary Washington seeds which i am going to sow in situ marking each planting place with a stick to avoid pulling it when weeding.

Cambourne7