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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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We salute you! This is an accomplishment. For advice on this we turned to Burpee, which advises 鈥渢he asparagus seeds should be sown indoors 12 to 14 weeks before the target seedling set-out date, which should be after the danger of frost has passed. Sow seeds 1/4-inch deep using a sterile seeding mix in individual 2-inch cells. Acclimate in a cold frame for one week prior to setting out in the garden.鈥 And we recognize that does not fully answer your question. The best planting time is spring. But that is a long way off鈥攂ut then, so it the deep of winter. In the weeks and months remaining, harden it off (in a cold frame or for a few hours/day) and plant it, then mulch it well. And maybe remulch it if the winter becomes severe. In spring, after the heavy weather, pull off the mulch and … see if it survived. This is something of an experiment; all gardening is. If the seedlings do fail, do not consider it a failure. You brought them to life! Then go and get some crowns. Remember, even newly planted crowns need to have about two years before you can harvest. We can only speculate on how many years you might wait for your seedlings to provide harvestable spears. Good luck!
Thanks for the information! I'll give that a try. The plants are in pots ( most are in yogurt cups) They have been outside all Spring and Summer. So Harding off is done :) I'll plant as you directed and see how they do over winter. Cover with mulch (and maybe Landscape cloth that allows air and water to go through) I'll let you know in the spring how they fair thru winter. I have asparagus planted that we enjoy every spring. Just wanted to try it from seeds. Thanks again. Have a great winter!
Early spring (April) I looked up what to do this year with my three year old asparagus. It gave me the opposite advice of your website...it said to keep cutting everything that comes up as a spear, even if not going to use it. Then when it starts coming up as a fern to let it grow, which I have done. But they are still mostly spears with a few ferns here and there. I have a real mix of pencil thin, or less, and medium to really fat spears. I am confused because the other site was supposed to be experts on asparagus also! Have I badly hurt the production for next year? Have you ever heard of this approach? We got enough every other day for two people. Frankly we have gotten tired of picking AND eating or freezing. Guess I should have inquired about this earlier!
Some people would say this is a good problem to have, Beth! (Have you been giving it away? selling it??) The spears should grow into ferns. If you’re cutting the spears, they are not reaching that stage. Let it alone until fall and then cut it down and side dress (see above). It is really, really hard to kill or otherwise lose asparagus. The ferns help the plant to make food for itself, allowing it to overwinter and produce healthy new spears the following year. Next year when it comes up, harvest the spears when they are about 6 inches tall and then let the remaining asparagus grow to the fern stage.
I have a few beds of asparagus that I planted last year. The 'crop' growth was excellent. Quite a few stalks and groups came up and grew to ~4-5ft tall. I cut them back in the fall after they started dying off.
My problem is this year. Right as we expected the crop from last sprouted up along with 40% more stalks than last year. New stalks are still coming up but I also have plants that have gone to fern that are approaching 5ft and hogging all the sunlight from my peppers and lettuce.
The stalks are thick, some almost 3 pencils in circumference. I know its only August; can I cut any of the fern off yet. (I have male and female plants)
Lucky you鈥攊n so many ways. The general rule of thumb is to cut dwn the ferns in the fall. The question is (not do you feel lucky; well, not really): what is more important to you: the asparagus or the peppers and lettuce. Understandably, the question puts you betw a rock and a hard place. You want the asparagus; you want the lettuce and peppers. We would advise in this case that you leave the 鈥榞rass alone and take of the lettuce and peppers what you can. The asparagus should be planted in a bed by itself for exactly this reason. The other vegetables, the annuals, rotate out and get picked out. But the asparagus is a perennial heavy feeder. It needs all the nutrients it can get; no competition. Next year, plant the annuals elsewhere. That’s what we would do…
Planted 5 plants this Spring, they're about 2 foot in length, have turned brown, and are now lying down. Is this normal for first year plants? Thanks in advance.
Hi Tom,
First year plants will die back late in the season, though not usually this early, but it depends on where you live. It could be over-watering, or excessive sun. At this point, don’t water them any more. You’ll have to wait and see if they come back next year!
We have a well established bed now that's 3 yrs old. This year we have numerous small ferns growing within the larger ferns. Should be transplant these elsewhere? Should we thin our asparagus?
Once all of the ferns have died down on their own (usually at first frost, but even without frost in areas that do not get frost), cut the ferns down to about 2 inches above the ground. Add several inches of mulch to the bed; compost or rotted manure is ideal. There is no 鈥渢ransplanting them elsewhere.鈥 The ferns grown from crowns that are not usually divided and have, by now (in your case, after three years) very long roots. You’re growing asparagus! Enjoy it!
