Asparagus Ahoy!
posted by Mike at 10:56 PM
Friday, April 27, 2007
Links
- Mike's 2007 Allotment Photo Gallery (All uploaded pics)
- Mike & Sue's Garden Diary
- Mike's Nature Diary
- Lytham Hall Apiary
- The Saunders' Allotment Page
- The Allotment Lady
- KT's Kitchen Garden
- My Tiny Plot
- Losing the Plot
- Head Burro
- Pumpkin Soup
- Calendula & Concrete
- A Country Garden
- Greenmantle
- Dave's Allotment Blog
- Stew & Fritha's Allotment
- Phil's Garden Diary
- Vidaverde Seed Catalogue
- The Mammoth Onion
- Simpson's Seeds
Previous Posts
- ....and here it is ready for steaming.
- Supper!
- Glass Act
- ....and here are some plants feeling the benefit....
- Chit Chat
- Flag Heap
- Greenhouse Update
- April is the Cruellest Month...
- Glass Update
- ...and here are the results.
10 Comments:
Wow - I had no idea they grew at this time. I thought it was June/July you harvested them.
I'm so pleased to see a few mares tails in amongst your asparagus - I'm trying to set up a bed but thought they may thwart my attempts!
Isnt it wonderful to be able to pick your own?
Greetings all:)
Asparagus being so early is one of the great things about it - it takes off just as the purple sprouting broccolli is getting a bit stringy.
I hate horsetail with a veangence but I just cut them off regularly when I see them and use groundcover whenever i can. So far they don't seem to have caused the asparagus any real problems.
Al - it is a luxury every time they are picked. We pick until the middle of June and still aren't really tired of it by then!
Hi Mike - I have a few questions in you don't mind :)
1) What age were the asparagus when you planted them? Seeds or crowns?
2) How much room do they need? I have a bew ready 10' long by 1.5' wide - is that enough?
3) If it is, how many plants will it support?
4) How many plants do you & Mrs Mike need / get through?
Cheers :)
Head Burro
www.wildburro.co.uk
Hi HB. This is a bit vague but you have plenty of room. I think a single row with plants around fifteen inches apart would suit your bed. Are you using seed or crowns? (You gain a year with crowns) Asparagus needs plenty of humus in the soil according to E.R. Janes, "The Vegetable Garden", Penguin, 1954. I got this for a quid at a second hand bookshop in Wales and it is brilliant. It came out before all the business with pesticides etc took off.
All the best, Mike
Looking at your question again we have a bed around 4ft by 12ft with a double row in it but some have died. I will count how many plants we have left. I have picked 4 times so far this year and the totals are 51, 41, 41 and 83 spears. They are very variable in size but all taste fantastic. Most are what I would call 'medium'.
(I haven't counted spears before but Paul next to me told me he does it and once you've started it's hard to stop. (Like so many things) He gets a lot more than I do off a smaller patch. If you can find a bigger space you will get more but I think the space you have is ok. How much do you like asparagus???
Oh - I planted crowns from Tim who had a plot here until last year. I didn't start cropping them early enough really as I was afraid to cut them! No problems with that now as the more you cut the more you get.
Sadly the crowns Tim kept for himself didn't really produce much of a crop.
Hi Mike,
I love asparagus! I have a 10' x 2' bed so will be able to fit about 6 to 7 crowns in I reckon (I'm going for 1 or 2 year old crowns). How much aspargus will that give me? Too much for 2 people?
HB
Hi HB,
The harvest seems to vsry so much from one bed to another but I don't think you will find that you are getting too much from that space. Good luck with it, Mike
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