Also receive the 蜜桃恋人 Daily newsletter including gardening tips, weather, astronomical events, and more.
Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Asparagus
Types
Female plants produce berries; males plants do not expend energy on berries so they can be up to three times more productive than female plants. For this reason, growing male asparagus plants is often preferred.
- Gardeners in Zones 4 to 6 have a wider selection of varieties, including 鈥Jersey Giant鈥, 鈥Jersey King鈥, and 鈥Jersey Knight鈥. Older varieties 鈥Mary Washington鈥 and 鈥Martha Washington鈥 may produce female plants, which are not as productive as the males.
- In colder climates, 鈥楪uelph Millennium鈥 and other varieties that emerge late often escape damage from spring freezes.
- In warmer climates, early and heat-tolerant varieties such as 鈥楢辫辞濒濒辞鈥 and 鈥UC-157鈥 produce well before the weather turns hot.
White asparagus is not a variety, but simply asparagus grown in the absence of sunlight to prevent chlorophyll from developing. White asparagus is slightly sweeter but has less fiber than green asparagus.
Purple asparagus is bred to be purple in color but turns green when it is cooked. Purple varieties tend to have thicker spears, but fewer of them. 鈥楶urple Passion鈥 is tasty but is not an all-male variety.
Harvesting
- Skip the harvest in the first year and the second year, if possible. Ideally, wait three growing seasons before harvesting in order to allow the crowns to become fully established.
- If you have young plants, the season may last 2 to 3 weeks. However, established plants produce longer鈥攗p to 8 weeks.
- Check your plant every other day for harvest-ready spears. Spears grow quickly and may become too woody before you know it! Once an asparagus spear starts to open and has foliage, it鈥檚 too tough for eating.
- Harvest spears when they reach 8 to 10 inches in height and between 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick. (Bear in mind that younger, thinner spears will be more tender, so harvest according to your own taste.)
- To harvest asparagus, simply cut the spears with a sharp knife or scissors at ground level.
- Stop harvesting spears when the diameter of the spears decreases to the size of a pencil.
- After harvest, fertilize your asparagus patch in the early summer. You can top-dress with a balanced organic fertilizer or scatter another inch of rich, weed-free compost over the decomposing mulch.
- Do NOT cut down the remaining ferns in summer or you will ruin your asparagus bed. Allow the ferns to grow and mature; this replenishes the nutrients for next year鈥檚 spear production. Always leave at least two or three spears on the plant through the growing season.
- Only cut back asparagus ferns AFTER the foliage has died back and turned brown or yellow. This is usually in early winter after several hard freezes. Cut the ferns back to the ground.
- Fertilize the bed with a 1-inch layer of rich, weed-free compost or manure topped with 3 inches of straw, rotted sawdust or another weed-free mulch. Clean spears will push up through the mulch in spring.
How to Store Asparagus
- Plunge just-cut spears into cold water immediately to preserve their sugar content.
- Asparagus does not keep for very long after it鈥檚 picked, so be sure to eat it within two or three days from harvest.
- To store, bundle the spears together, wrap the stem ends of the spears in a moist paper towel, and place the bundle in a plastic bag. Store in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
- If you have enough space in your fridge, you can also store asparagus by placing the spears in a cup of water. Keep about an inch of clean water in the cup.
Cooking Notes
A simple and easy favorite when it comes to asparagus is .
Catherine Boeckmann
ADVERTISEMENT
It should be OK to wait to plant them in spring. Make sure that the pots are protected from freezing (such as surrounding them with a thick layer of straw mulch). Asparagus should go through a period of dormancy over winter for best spear growth. Keep them in a cool area (preferable outdoors). In late fall, after the foliage has died or has yellowed, cut them back to about an inch from the ground. Do not water or fertilize the plants over winter. In spring, begin watering again just before spears appear, and remove mulch when they do appear.
I had a wonderful harvest this last spring and allowed the fronds to grow. However, I looked at the edge of the garden the other day and, low and behold, I saw healthy asparagus spears about 8 inches tall! Am I just blessed or should I let them grow?
Hi, Marilyn, Apparently this is a very rare event! Folks we contacted had little to no experience with it, so there was no consensus, just opinions. These incluude
鈥 to leave the spears, as you would first and second year growth.
鈥 to pick the spears and enjoy them鈥攖hey’re a gift!
鈥 to pick a few and leave a few, so you have the best of both worlds: a harvest and a plant allowed to mature…in which case (it occurs to us) you’re blessed twice.
Hope this helps!
I planted 2 pkg of asparagus seeds in an 8" pot in June. They have been in the house in a south facing window until now. (August 30) They are all growing and thick fern like stems.
How do I winter them? Should I plant them outside in the fall or keep them in a planter in a cooler temp over the winter?
Can you harvest asparagus in the fall?
Normally no. Usually one lets the spears grow in spring, harvesting some of them, then letting the rest grow into ferns to make food for the plant during the season so they can survive over winter and grow again next spring. However, there is a method mentioned by the Arizona Cooperative Extension where, if you have a lot of space, for a spring/fall harvest you can grow half of your bed the above way, and half the following way: when the spears appear in spring, do not harvest them—let them grow into ferns. Then in late July, cut the ferns down. This prompts the plant to grow new spears, which you can harvest a certain percentage (just like the spring-harvested method) for a few weeks before the end of the growing season. These fall-harvested crops will always need to be only harvested in fall — you can’t also harvest from them in spring, or you will severely weaken the plants. Hope this helps!
After the 2yr asparagus die back, how do I care for the plants? I did not harvest any asparagus this year as suggested. They are 2 yr old crowns purchased this last spring. I have each of my 40 plants in 4 gallon pots. O dont want to kill them!
Asparagus growing in containers will not yield as much, and will not live nearly as long as those grown in the ground, but the method does offer access to these wonderful plants to those who do not have the yard space. These plants do need lots of space, however, and will quickly outgrow a 4-gallon pot — ideally something like 15 gallons or more is preferable - about 18 to 20 inches deep and about the same as wide. They do not like transplanting, though, so if you decide to transfer them to a larger pot, wait until they are dormant in fall or winter.
For general care, wait for the ferns to die back in the fall, then cut them down to about 3 inches. Provide mulch over the crowns (some use the cut down ferns) and protect them appropriately from winter’s cold, depending on your climate (they do require some period of cold temperatures). In spring, side-dress with organic fertilizer, scratching it into the surface, and then add some compost. Be sure your pot has good drainage, and that it is set in an area where the plant can get about 6 to 8 hours full sun. Water consistently (when dry about 2 inches into soil — do not overwater).
Do not harvest from the plants until the second year after they were planted in the container (so yours would then be 4 years old if you planted 2-yr crowns in spring 2016—if you transplant them again into another pot, you ideally should wait another year again — you can play it by ear, and monitor the vigor of the plants as they come up that second year).
For more advice for growing asparagus in your area, you might try contacting your county’s Cooperative Extension. For contact information, see:
http://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services
You should add whether it needs full sun.
Hi Mike, asparagus does need full sun! We have updated our page to reflect that. Thank you!
