[ATF]

anyone had any luck doing this? I've got 5 or so seedlings that have been grown from seeds, any asparagus tips anyone  ?

[lazybee]

You could be eating your own home grown Asparagus in five years time

[ellied]

I managed to grow 3 seedlings into first year plants about 3 years back but didn't get any of them to grow to maturity   Still not sure if I over or under watered them but they didn't come back the 2nd spring

This year I bought 2 and have planted them in a large outdoor box as I reckon the veg beds aren't enough to dedicate that space for a decade - the single shoot has grown and I'm watering away, so just hoping I don't mess up again as I really would like to try homegrown asparagus and something that grows back itself for 20 years would be a decent investment   Whether it'll like a box or not I don't know

If you get tips I'll be reading them, and if you have success please pass on your own tips

[lazybee]

The normal way to grow them is to plant the crown roots. I've had really good asparagus for 5 yrs but for the last 3 yrs I've been getting less and less. I've found it a real chore to maintain the beds for such a short season. there's a bramble growing in one and thistles in one of the other. It's hard to get these out without damaging the roots. Another problem I had was I had too many male plants, they tend to send up 2 or 3 big thick stems. The female plant is the one to get they have many more stems. The other rule is don't pick any after June as the plant won't be able to recover. Also don't hack the plant down until the fronds have died back. I had (at their peak) 4 rows at 50ft long. Next year I'm ploughing the lot up and putting spuds in.

[dizzy1pig]

hi there i have about 30 that i just pricked out the other day.
so its along haul until they are ready.. 4-5 years am told
but anything is worth a try... challenge

[cluckingnuts]

The problem I found with growing it from seed is you only want the male plants.

[ATF]

I've planted a crown as well as a row of seedlings - and yeah it's a long term project!

How do you tell male plants from female?

[Simon O]

Our HDRA organic book suggests that asparagus can be sown and grown on a 4-year sacrificial cycle  and so fitted into a standard 4 year crop rotation - sow plant out and grow on first year, one or two spears 2nd year, restricted crop 3rd year and harvest the lot and clear the bed 4th year. It would be interesting to know if anyone has managed to do this in practice. You would need to have a bit of space for this as they don't produce much for the space used. Previously I have had some initial success then gradual fading away with a static bed as noted above(with crowns). As we now have a bigger garden I am planning a larger static bed, and am sowing and planning to plant out the strongest of the plants. This is more on a cost basis than for ease of growing, as it would be too expensive to buy enough crowns - they seem to be at least a pound each.

[Blonde]

takes a long time to produce from seed