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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
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Do you continue to water asparagus through the summer after you have let the fronds grow or is it better to let them dry up?
After you harvest the asparagus, you should keep watering the plants for good fern growth until they die down. Once they die in the fall, then you mow and mulch them on the beds.
Please describe the what the female & male parts of a asparagus look like. Do you cut down the asparagus ferns in the summer so more asparagus can grow from the roots?
Male flowers have 6 stamens with orange anthers and white non-protruding filaments, that tend to be more bell shaped. The female’s ovary is green and in three sections, and its flowers have pistils with a 3-stigma style—they are more tubular. It is best to leave the fern-like growth intact until it turns brown in the fall, as the foliage is photosynthesizing and helps generate energy for the following year.
My husband has just cut all the fronds down on a 4 year old asparagus bed. It is mid-July. Is there any way of rescuing my asparagus bed. I had allowed the fronds to grow to about 1.5m after harvesting in May but he decided they were in the way and cut off every leaf, leaving sticks about 40cm. Has any one been able to salvage plants after this treatment?
The asparagus fronds provide and store energy for the roots that provide the spears in the next season. The effect of this early shearing is likely to be a poor spear harvest next year. With such well-established plants, we think鈥攚e hope鈥攖hat you might only have to sacrifice one year.
For now, leave the plants alone. Do nothing. In autumn, weed the bed then lay on a few inches of organic matter (composted manure, leaf mold, the like) and work it into the soil. Check the pH and amend if necessary. Asparagus are pretty hardy once established and four years is a pretty well-established bed.
Next year, leave the fronds in place, letting them turn brown in the autumn. Then, tell your husband he can cut them down.
All the best!
i planted asparagus from seed 2 years ago. Last year they grew about 12" high. I did not harvest his year, the plants are healthy and the ferns about about 3' high. The problem that i have now however, is that they are being crowded out by some sage that i also planted form seed nearby. The sage has unexpectedly turned into 2' x 2' bushes and the asparagus is growing " through" them in some cases. Should i transplant them now (July) - into an uncrowded location with better soil or wait until Spring/fall? I am in gardening zone 6A
We've just bought a home that has a nice asparagus bed out back, used to be raised but has settled some...looks healthy, but I'm not sure how old it is, or how to care for it now.
My plan is to put some compost and mulch in the bed this fall, while cutting the old canes. There appear to be a lot of females in here, as there's a whole lot of fruiting going on. Do I need to save those little "berries?" And is a preponderance of females a problem?
Also, do you think I need to add phosphorus for the roots? It looks like the bed is well established, as there are a bunch of plants, but it's obvious that the people who lived here the last 2 years were not gardeners.
Also, in the article it says "side dress" with mulch. What is that?
Hello! I was wondering if I can plant my one-year-old asparagus crowns now. My husband and I recently moved to a small hobby farm in southeast Minnesota. This spring I started on a new vegetable garden and dug two 20' x 5' garden beds for tomatoes, potatoes, onions, peppers, etc. Sadly, I wasn't able to dig the asparagus bed until this month and today just finished with the amendments. The bed is 12' x 4', double-dug, raised with a 6" high wooden frame, and edged on the inside with aluminum flashing going down about 8" to keep out the surrounding turf and weeds. So with all of that, I'm hoping that I can plant my asparagus crowns now--possibly with shade protection if needed--or if I should wait until the fall. Our area has had some hot (80s) days, a couple of near-90 days, and this week should be cooler in the mid-70s. Thank you for any help on this question! Diana
By 鈥渘ow鈥 you mean in June, right? Sure. Better to get them started. Keep them watered鈥攂ut not wet (sopping) and allow them to dry between watering.
