Allotments 4 All

How long does an asparagus bed last. I think it is from 2009 and this spring there is almost nothing and the spears look pretty tired. Or could I do something to improve it?

No personal experience, but gardening books say 20 years or more.  Weeding, feeding and watering maybe? 

I have had a bed for 10 years or more and it is still very prolific. I picked 60 good size spears 2 days ago. The crop is very much weather dependant if you get a cold spell it will slow right down but as soon as it warms up it will produce again. I always water it well every time I go down to the allotment during the cropping season. I support the ferns with barrier netting until I cut them down around Christmas time and then I cover the bed in farmyard manure. I have a problem with tiny weeds possibly from the manure so it is really a full time job keeping it weed free.

Thank you. I'll try watering it. Hadn't thought of that. They keep promising rain but it hasn't come yet!

Watering is a great help to an Asparagus bed in dry weather. Our bed has been running for over twenty years, including one full re location, when couch got into it while I was poorly @2005. Be careful you don't over crop any of the crowns... like forcing rhubarb it weakens the plant. At worst steel yourself to not picking for a season to allow the crowns to bulk up again.. I do this like coppicing.. if a crown or two produce spindly shoots don't cut them.. let them grow and feed the crown.. focus on the stronger spears... and repeat each year.

Your bed is a baby yet. I grew mine from seed in 1984, moved the crowns after 4 years, and I am still getting more and more spears every year. I mulch some years with my own compost if there is any spare, I don't water but I do stop cutting after about 12 weeks harvesting. I may just have hit a lucky spot for them, I suppose, but certainly don't give up on yours. The joy of the first asparagus of spring is wonderful.

It could just have got dry - 2018 nearly finished off my bed, there's a little life in it this year but the heaviest yielding plant is a blow-in seedling from, I think, 2017! All our water is pumped from wells, so 2018 was hard work keeping stuff alive.