Plant Profile-Asparagus

Over the next few days we will be posting some plant profiles. Other then normal info on each plant we plan on including helpful hints and at least one recipe. We hope that you will enjoy this information and that it will be helpful.


Asparagus:

This plant is a long lived plant, meaning that this plant can be planted once and you can continue to harvest for many years after-wards.

Moist sandy soil is ideal with a good set of compost amend in. Also remember to plant asparagus where you plan to leave it. So pick a good spot, one where you can see the asparagus still being years from now. Dig trenches 8-10 inches and space crowns 4-5 ft apart. Young asparagus benefits from phosphorus and avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers. If needed, add a 5-10-10 fertilizer in the spring.

Weeding is critical to keep asparagus beds productive. Allow young shoots to develop, but cut them back to the ground in fall after a hard freeze.

Leave asparagus alone the 1st year of planting. In your second year harvest for only a couple of weeks and then in your 3rd year you can harvest for longer.

Pest include: The Fusarium Wilt and the asparagus beetles.

Helpful hints and tips:
The harvest doesn’t stop them. Even cut off from their roots, the asparagus spears keep growing at the tip. If they’re stored lying down, the tips rise away from the pull of gravity, and can bend 60 degrees or more from the stalk before they run out of energy.
Most of this loss of sweetness and toughening happens in the first day after harvest. Farmers can minimize it by chilling new-cut asparagus right away. But a delay of just four hours between harvest and chilling causes the spears to toughen significantly. So does allowing the chilled spears to warm up to 60 degrees or more in a grocery display or at the farmers’ market.

Recipes:
Creamed Asparagus Soup recipe can be found here.

References and for more fun reading:
Book of Joe

Miracle-Gro's Complete Guide to Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs.