Allotments 4 All

I planted one year roots last year of Connovers Colossal and one row has come up and one not.  Planted same time, same conditions - weird?

I never harvested from them last year but am I allowed to take some this year - or another year wait?

Jitterbug

Bak they do actually looked nibbled!

Better if you're patient Jitterbug and wait till next year. It's three years since i planted mine and this is my first harvest.

Suziebelle,

apart from slugs, cutworms can be a problem and of course asparagus beetle. However, I would have thought that it is a bit cold and early for either of them ... so my favourite would have to be slugs.

I've got one, (1, singular, non plural) spear come up... Thought it was a blade of couch grass until I looked very closely at it.

It might be ants! the little blighters were eating some of mine last year!

Plot 69: I've seen it, I think it's a blade of grass mate  ;)

You could be right there Tonybloke  I did have to redistribute an ants nests ??? I have raised beds which do seam to attract the ants - nice and warm I expect, was thinking of using some of the natural predator thingies think their some sort of nematode, don't know whether any one has an opinion on the probable success rate because I think it's quite expensive to go down that route :-\

It amazes me how many anti-ant posts I read. They may do some marginal harm by farming aphids, but I've never noticed that the aphids affected plants much. They also kill a lot of nasties. You don't want them in pots, but I've always had ants nests all over my plot, and I've never seen one do any detectable harm.

mine are the red blighters and they bite! >:(

Yes  ;D Yes  ;D Yes  ;D

It's not raining and our first tips are starting to poke their heads out of the asparagus bed.

Last year was our first harvest - looking forward to an even better year this year.

I had already picked about 8 spears early last week but on Monday i went down and found quite a few more spears including one giant 40cm tall x  2 cm diameter purple thing standing there looking.....well hmm! :-[

Anyway i took them home including the 'giant' and my husband said that one will be tough and fibrous! But he was wrong it was just as delicous and tender as all the rest!

try them as they are , without cooking them, tast like the pea pods
Pauline

I cut my first few tonight. Not enough foe a meal though, so what's the best way to store them in anticipation?

In a vase of water.

my wife freezes them

My first spears are up, but I'm only looking this year.

Crowns were only planted in March - so I'm also just looking - at quite a few spindly spears....

Cut our first  last weekend - all three of them  :)

Aha! I've been eating quite a lot every few days for a couple of weeks now - but 20 crowns went in perhaps five or six years ago. I can clear them one evening, and pick another ten 24 hours later, and they haven't reached peak performance yet. Well worth waiting for, and restraining oneself for the first 2 or 3 years.

Last year I invited a neighbour to pick them until mid-June, as I was away, and when I got back at the end of June he had forgotten to stop, so I was a bit worried they would not recover - but they have.