canadiyank
Blooming
Central WA, Zone 6B
Posts: 125
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Post by canadiyank on May 6, 2015 15:51:52 GMT -5
Is it still cold where you are? I am only on my 3rd picking and one or two plants have not produced any spears yet so there's still hope for yours. Nope. Mild, early Spring. I will not give up hope but things are not looking good. :(
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liz1
Sprout
Posts: 17
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Post by liz1 on May 6, 2015 19:01:50 GMT -5
Oh yum!! I can't wait to try them! Thanks!
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Post by claude on May 7, 2015 5:22:33 GMT -5
I have spears as volunteers sprouting up in my raised beds! Should I transplant them or just ditch them?
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Post by brownrexx on May 7, 2015 7:48:30 GMT -5
I would ditch them myself. I have Jersey Knight asparagus which is an all male hybrid so I do not want to save plants that came from hybrid seeds. I want to keep my bed pure.
I also do not let seedlings come up in the asparagus bed because it can cause crowding which will lead to decreased production.
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Post by lisaann on May 7, 2015 17:22:04 GMT -5
If your spears don't break clean, I find that odd.
The ones that just bend here, seem rather stringy. That's not the correct description, but woody isn't a good description..............
If it bends at the soil line, go up a bit higher............It will break at the non STRINGY SPOT.
GO TRY IT AND TELL ME THE CORRECT WORDING.
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Post by brownrexx on May 7, 2015 20:26:42 GMT -5
Mine seem to bend at the soil line or break off jagged if I break them up higher. I have been cutting them at the soil line this year and they have been super tender and non stringy. However I do cut off about an inch from the bottom before cooking though so maybe that last inch would have been stringy if I had kept it.
I don't like breaking them off higher in the garden because then I have those hard stubs sticking out of the ground for an inch or two. They get dry and hard and I always seem to ram my knuckles into them when harvesting more spears.
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Post by claude on May 8, 2015 6:52:53 GMT -5
I thought that you cut them at ground level because those stubs give asparagus beetles a highway into the roots? Then I cover them over with straw.
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Post by brownrexx on May 8, 2015 7:59:11 GMT -5
I don't know that they would get into the roots. The eat the tips of the spears and they overwinter in plant debris which I think means the fronds and that is why I remove the fronds when they turn brown in the Fall.
Not having fronds around forces the beetles to hibernate in the soil where they can be eaten by predators.
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Post by OregonRed on May 8, 2015 11:16:21 GMT -5
and so brown, do you cover the bed with straw? would that classify as plant debris? I don't know here, just asking, I don't grow asparagus...
one of my friends planted 1, I think?
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Post by binnylou on May 8, 2015 11:28:22 GMT -5
one of my friends planted 1, I think? This reminds me of my brother...I had extra asparagus starts and asked him if he wanted some. He said he would take one. I can tell that he is not an asparagus fan.
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Post by brownrexx on May 8, 2015 14:27:20 GMT -5
and so brown, do you cover the bed with straw? would that classify as plant debris? Yes I do mulch it with straw for the winter but the beetles should have already laid their eggs on the fronds by then and I take the fronds away and cover the bed with new straw so hopefully I am taking most of the eggs away. Obviously some must survive somewhere because the beetles found my patch. I had them last year too but they are not really too bad. The biggest number of them I have hand picked in a day is 12 and some days I have only seen 1 or 2.
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Post by OregonRed on May 8, 2015 23:13:14 GMT -5
ah, I c then, the eggs, I always forget about that aspect...
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Post by lilolpeapicker on May 9, 2015 6:18:12 GMT -5
Do you mulch asparagus? Or lay down garden fabric? I haven't seen anything here about mulching. What I am finding here is that I have a lot of crabgrass that grows everywhere. And my knees don't let me bend very well to be pulling weeds and grasses without pulling roots of veggies too. So I am not sure I can handle asparagus growing here.
I know you're not supposed to mulch onions but I do lay garden fabric between rows so I am not weeding and that works out fairly well.
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Post by claude on May 9, 2015 7:58:06 GMT -5
Brown, did you ever "salt" your asparagus bed? This Rodale encyclopedia suggests adding sodium chloride rock salt NaCl..2.5lbs to a 100 ft before spears appear or after harvest finishes to help resist fusarium fungi and crown and root rot. (That's what I must have been thinking of..and why I cut spears at soil level)
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Post by brownrexx on May 9, 2015 8:04:31 GMT -5
I have never had any rot problems so I have never added any salt or anything other than compost after the spears finish being harvested and again in the Fall before I mulch the bed for the winter.
After the spears are finished I will add a layer of straw between the rows for the summer and that seems to work really well.
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