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Last Updated: Jan 10, 2007 - 10:15:57 AM |
Asparagus
A perennial herb, cultivated for the succulent young shoots that arise from the crown in the spring. Asparagus is native to Europe. It has been cultivated 2000 years and more. It was known to the Greeks and Romans. The so-called leaves of asparagus are really leaflike branches.
Being a rugged plant, asparagus will live and thrive on almost any kind of soil, even under adverse circumstances and went entirely neglected. Occasionally, one may find apparently thrifty plants in fence rows, or strong stalks pushing up through stone heaps or other things piled on an old abandoned asparagus bed. Plants on good soil will get so large, and the immense network of roots so well anchored into the soil, that all the strength of a good team may be insufficient to pull them out, and sometimes several years worth of persistent efforts may be required to clear them out of a piece of ground once used as an asparagus patch.
The stalks that the discriminating growers and fastidious consumers want or those an inch in diameter and lusciously tender and succulent, and these can be grown only a good plant set far enough apart on well-drained, well composted, and well tilled soil.
To secure the choice early stalks that bring high prices and delicious eating, the land selected for an asparagus patch should be a warm a rich loam, preferably exposed to East or South. Manure and organic fertilizer should be used lavishly. In this respect, many growers fail to obtain best results by not using enough. Unless the soil is already well supplied with vegetable matter, and loose loamy soil, it is important add large amounts of compost or rotted, stable manure before you even start. A heavy dressing is to be plowed under, and should be well and deeply mixed with the soil by replowing and reworking the land.
Afterwards, concentrated manures that are rich in nitrogen will do very well for loose soils, and may be broadcast on top of the soil to provide a nitrogen rich organic environment.
To grow your own supply of asparagus, it is helpful to start with a selection of good strong one-year-old plants. They are usually preferable to the ordinary two-year-old plants. The mail, or pollen bearing plants, are often more vigorous and more productive of good stalks than the female, or seed bearing plants. But it is not easy to tell one from the other unless they bloom, long after they are well established in your garden and it would be impractical to tear them out and replace them.
Asparagus seeds are rather hard shelled and sometimes slow to germinate. It is important to give the seedling plants the longest possible period of growth so you can secure the strongest possible plants. You should soak the seeds before planting them, and you should plant and early in the spring.
Asparagus rows should be planted about a foot apart, with seeds planted rather thinly. Asparagus plants should be thinned to 3 inches apart at an early age, and weeds should be kept carefully away from the very beginning.
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