Growing asparagus

miniandfloss

Asparagus is loved in our house but very expensive to buy so I wondered how easy it was to grow? Can it be grown in containers? Or does it have to grow in the ground? I know you have to wait a few years before you get crop from it but figured i could start now. I'm a new vegetable gardener so any tips on varieties/growing and maintaining it would be much appreciated.

LadyCoupon

I'm interested in this too. I bought a plant from the garden centre and so far have planted in a pot but never grown asparagus before, so would welcome any tips.

Mojisola

The RHS is a good place to start for gardening advice -
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Asparagus

In the ground and kept weed-free, plants will keep producing for many years. In a pot, the crop will be smaller and the plants won't last so long but if that's the only space you have, go for it.

Lavendyr

miniandfloss wrote: »

Asparagus is loved in our house but very expensive to buy so I wondered how easy it was to grow? Can it be grown in containers? Or does it have to grow in the ground? I know you have to wait a few years before you get crop from it but figured i could start now. I'm a new vegetable gardener so any tips on varieties/growing and maintaining it would be much appreciated.

I started growing asparagus last year. The normal route to start growing it is from crowns (bare root plants, basically). I ordered 10 1-year old crowns online from an asparagus nursery in Kent for about £1.50 per crown and am growing them in a raised bed (2.4m x 1.2m). You can also buy two-year old crowns, but my understanding is that they are harder to transplant so you may have a lower success rate in getting them to establish. You can also grow it from seed, but this is more difficult (though cheaper).

Asparagus are gross feeders and I don't think they would grow well in containers because I just don't see how you could keep them fed well enough. They need to be planted in very well prepared soil with manure (or another compost) dug in in advance that has been thoroughly weeded.

Planting the crowns is pretty easy - there are lots of good videos and guidance on how to plant asparagus crowns on t'internet. I found this one particularly useful: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingasparagus1.shtml

Once it's in and established, it is quite easy to look after - it just gets on and grows. Asparagus grows tall and ferny (it's actually quite pretty and the bees like its tiny little yellow flowers), and once the ferns turn yellow (in autumn) you cut them down and it goes dormant for the winter.

Every year the crowns push themselves higher up out of the ground so you need to keep adding compost and soil. A layer of compost each year will help to provide the nutrition they need to grow. Because of the crowns sitting quite close to the top of the soil, you have to weed very carefully which is why it's best to make sure the bed is weed free to start with.

You can harvest asparagus about three years after it was planted as seed. So for one-year old crowns that is two years after you have planted them. The place I bought mine from said you can harvest sparingly, if you have had good growth in the first year, for a couple of weeks in the first year after planting, but I'm not sure I will as I want my plants to crop as well as possible in future years.

Once you are cropping though you can get about 15-20 years worth of asparagus! They do not like being moved, though, so you need to be sure you are staying where you are for a good few years.

Hope that helps:)

C_J

Hi Minnieandfloss

I have an asparagus bed which was planted up about five years ago with one-year-old crowns bought from a local nursery - these started cropping after the first year (it was so hard not to harvest any spears that first time, but it really is better for the plant not to!). The following year I supplemented them with another dozen crowns bought from Poundland of all places .... and they are going very well too - thinner spears, but still tasty.

Last year I decided to try growing crowns from seed (in a large pot in the polytunnel), and they pretty much all germinated. They've overwintered beautifully so I now have dozens and dozens of spindly little fronds which I will plant out into a bed of their own later this year - my plan is to have them come onstream in about three years when my earliest plants are (perhaps, I don't know) starting to crop less.

I love asparagus, but hate all the waiting ........

Mojisola

Lavendyr wrote: »

Once it's in and established, it is quite easy to look after - it just gets on and grows.

It's really important not to let perennial weeds get established. You can't dig them out without disturbing the asparagus so you have to be vigilant and catch them early.

miniandfloss

Thanks so much for all your advice, I've been preparing the bed where I'm going to put them today and will look up the asparagus place in kent. I've got heaps of compost from the past 2 years so dug that in.

The waiting for the next few years is definitely going to be a challenge!