How to Grow Asparagus
An amazing backyard vegetable garden addition!
Today let’s talk about this peculiar - oh so weird (IMHO) vegetable! I believe if you’re here, and pardon the assumption that perhaps you’re an asparagus lover, buying little bundles of neatly arranged asparagus from the markets or store and adore the flavors. Or perhaps you’re just asparagus curious? Regardless I would LOVE to get you excited about growing this special vegetable because let me tell you - it is the vegetable gift that keeps on giving!
Let me back up a little and explain. You see, I had the great fortune of moving to a property of a former gardener who had taken the time to plant asparagus. This former gardening property owner was out of State during the hand over and did not leave any planting plan or information about what was in her former vegetable patch. I experienced the joy - I am not exaggerating - literal JOY of discovering little baby asparagus crowns emerging from the soil reaching to the sun like little baby birds chirping for their mamas! AND they kept coming up and coming up with NO care or tending on my part. They’re very independent veggies!! There are no leaves , no build up - just POP out of the earth and ready to snap off and munch. Tender- juicy and bursting with their unique flavor.
Is it easy to grow asparagus?
It is! BUT there are a lot of things you should know. First you should know there is a quite a bit of delayed gratification to growning asparagus BUT it’s a kinda of ‘set it and forget it’ kinda vegetable. A bit of work up front then you really just wait it out. If you put in the initial work - your planted asparagus will continue to produce veggies for up to 10-15 years! That’s a LOT of asparagus in your future so totally worth the effort. This qualifies this vegetable garden additional as a perennial (coming back each year). Perennials = good. Ok so what that really, really means is you need a dedicated spot in your garden for asparagus. A little landing strip for these sweeties to live and thrive.
Secondly point I would like to tell you is that through the year, the asparagus will send up quite tall fronds that are quite volumnous. Thus probably NOT ideal to grow indoors. These ‘fronds’ put energy back in to the asparagus roots and thus are incredibly important. They also produce little red berries in fall that are not safe to eat. Seriously - do NOT eat the berries. Another reason I don’t feel it a good idea to grow indoors especially with children or pets around. FYI the red berries are actually little seed pods and can be saved to be dried, separated and replanted - how cool is that?! In fact - asparagus will self seed.
You need a dedicated spot for your asparagus plot
The plants send up tall fronds to put energy back into the root system
The berries are NOT edible
Asparagus is a perennial coming back year after year
You may need to top up your bed over time
Asparagus plants /roots produce up to 15 years
Not ideal for indoor growing
How to plant asparagus - is it better to use crowns or seeds?
You can grow asparagus from crowns or seeds. What is an asparagus crown? A crown is a collection of roots and rhizomes that will advance your asparagus growing up to 1-2 years! Thus they’re essentially plants that are already 2 years old. It’s like buying your plant starts instead of seeds - you get a leg up. Totally worth it in my opinion because it also helps you plan out your spacing and betters your chances of avoiding birds or other animals/insects affecting your bed layout. So again,the majority of people start with crowns because it will get you to an asparagus harvest much faster than seeds. Sounds good, right?
If you’ve not seen asparagus ‘crowns’ here you are. A bit of a tangled mess.
Can you grow asparagus in raised beds?
You can, and if this is your only option go for it. That said, asparagus takes up quite a bit of gardening space so one of the best ways to grow it is to dedicate a little plot off to the side for your patch. You should know as well that asparagus season is pretty short and while you can grow quite a bit of asparagus, you probably do not want to give too much of your gardening space thereby taking valuable space away from other veggies you could grow. Think of it like a bonus area.
How do you plant asparagus crowns?
When you’re ready to get your asparagus crowns in the earth you will want to presoak the crown roots for about one hour to soften them. Submerge ONLY the roots, not the top of the crown under water while you ready the bed. In your dedicated asparagus plot you’ll want to prepare the soil. Asparagus crown spacing should be about 18 inches apart and really thrive in well draining soil. If you have sandy soil - perfect. Just augment that with some fresh compost and ash if you have any. If however your soil is craggy and claylike you will want to soften and lighten up the text by adding compost. Think of it as as though it’s you - feel the soil - if it’s nice and soft you’ll be happy. If it’s hard and dense, not so comfy especially when it gets wet it will just stick to you - yucky.
Once your soil is ready you’ll want to dig a hole around 8 inches deep and wide. Take your softened crowns from the water and place in the hole, spreading the root system out around and under the crown. You don’t want your crowns all jumbled up in a bunch. Then cover the roots up to the crown and gently press the soil around your new asparagus plant.
Stages of growing asparagus
Asparagus has this whole transformative year that is really fascinating to watch! The bit where you actually ‘see’ asparagus occurs in the early spring. It is one of the first veggies to emerge from your garden and it has become, to me an indicator that HORRIBLE wine is just about over. (I HATE winter FYI). So not only is it a dose of optimism, it is also an exciting start to the growing season. Also. I might add - it is a really tasty treat. Snap off a fresh spear of asparagus and …. so good and juicy! OK - so to get to the point, the spears emerge early spring. They continue to shoot up little spears for about late February, early March and will continue to around May-ish to perhaps if you’re lucky, June. Then it’s over. Those poor plants just worked their bums off!
After the spear session the plant will start to produce fronds. Some people have called them ‘ferns”. These emerge and are quite volumnous and specacular. They are a light bright vibrant green. This show is the part where the plant pumps energy back into the root crowns for next year so you really want to just let it run wild and do its thing. Hands and nippers OFF! Eventually you will begin to see bright red berries which are actually the seed pod. DO NOT EAT THIS! Seriously - don’t. You will vomit. Leave them for the birds to enjoy.
These red berries are actually seeds and if you collect them, dry them, pry them open you will have about 3 seeds. IF left for the birds etc, asparagus can self seed and so you could end up with more plants - that is if the aforementioned birds don’t get them. Ok so after the beautiful feathery frond and the bright vomit-inducing berries are done, the fronds will start looking pretty worn out. They turn yellow and this indicates that clearly you are ready to cut these fronds off. I use a scathe to cut the main height off and then I find a weed whacker does a great job trimming these down to the ground. This happens around fall. Through winter is when feed and cover your beds with a generous covering of compost. The compost is not only aesthetic - it helps with weeds AND creates a smooth canvas for the spring emerging of fresh spears! Full circle!
How to maintain your asparagus bed - the care and feeding of asparagus.
Right, so plants in general need food like people. I’m speaking like this not because I doubt your experience or intelligence but rather because I totally find fertilizers confusing! So apologies but you should know that yes, asparagus does benefit from some a bit of love in the way of a “BALANCED” fertilizer. This means when you go shopping for fertilizer you are looking for the following ratio - and I”ll make it big for my own benefit too!
ASPARAGUS NEEDS A BALANCED FERTALIZDR WITH A 5-10-10 RATIOHow do you water asparagus?
When the plants are producing their spears a/k/a the growing season is when you want to be more mindful of keeping the asparagus bed moist. If you snap off a fresh spear it’s clear to see how juicy they are and keep the beds happy with your ‘normal’ amount of water. The rest of the season you can back off a bit.
Can you grow asparagus in pots, indoors?
Technically yes you could but totally not advisable in my opinion. For the following reasons; the plant becomes super tall when it sends out its fronds. These fronds only last a few months until they turn yellow and die back, needing to be pruned away. It produces red berries that will make you vomit if you eat them! AND most of the time of the year you will have nothing but bare soil. It is not an attractive plant to have to look at as most of the year the asparagus crowns appear dormant.
Does asparagus spread?
Yes! It does!!! While I mentioned above that the plant can self seed it actually can spread underground through the root system. How clever is that? That is unless you have underground pests like gophers. (Where I live in Northern California gophers are the big pest). They do not eat the crowns but rather their tunnels can introduce air underground and this can dry out roots. BUMMER! You will however have ample opportunity to watch your asparagus bed over the year and see where any gaps develop OR where you begin to see more density. I myself found I had to top up areas of my bed with new crowns.
Side note: This is another reason why I really like adding fresh compost to the bed after the frond phase is complete. When the spears emerge it’s clear to see where the crowns are thriving. Using compost is also a great way to redefine your growing areas and personally I just like the neat tidy beds and the rich look of dark fresh compost.
Asparagus types
If you want to truly nerd out over asparagus please feel free to hop on over to Wikipedia because there are over 300 sub types / 10 main types of asparagus. Some of the names you’ll likey come across if you’re shopping for crowns are: Jersey Giant, Jersey Knight, Purple Passion, Something Washington… yada yada. So many! Honestly just find some crowns you know will grow well in YOUR growing area and dive in… it’s going to taste like asparagus trust me.
For me, my decision when buying crowns came down to color. I already had an established bed of green asparagus and just bought some purple for fun. NOTE: White asparagus is simply spears that have not seen the light of day, typically this happens when the gardener covers the bed with straw. There is no magical white asparagus crown to purchase. And personally, not because you asked - I find white asparagus repulsive. Someone had to say it.
Asparagus recipes
I do hope too add some yummy ideas here as we get further into the season this year. AND if I can resist snapping off the freshly emerged spears. Stay tuned.
