Asparagus - sun requirements, plant spacing, and more . . .

Feel free to answer only one (or more) of the questions below. Quote only what you need to in order to make your reply make sense in context so we don't have a bunch of long posts unless there's a lot of information you're sharing, which is certainly welcome! Thanks for reading!

I just bought somewhere around 70-100 small crowns of asparagus, mostly Mary Washington but about 20% of them are Purple Passion (or some similar name). I usually prefer to plant heirloom varieties, but the Purple Passion had some good-sounding qualities that I thought I'd plant some, and they were not in abundance in the after holiday leftovers at Menard's and Tractor Supply, so I got all of those they had and the rest (the bulk of my purchases) are the Mary Washington variety.

So, my first question is about where to plant them and that depends on how much sun they require. I have a spot I'd prefer to plant them in that's all by itself, between a sidewalk and the house in front of the kitchen window. Right now it's mostly dirt and a few weeds but has good soil there, and I can mix in some soil made by our worms which converted a lot of kitchen scraps and paper into rich soil.

However, it only gets full morning sun. Is that enough or does it need full sun and as much full sun as possible? If so, I have another spot that gets full sun for probably 8 or more hours mid-summer on the side of the garage but in the spring it might get some sunshine cut off in the early morning since the garage side I can plant on is facing SW and not due south. I don't know how much shade it will get from the corner of the garage, but it will still get plenty of light and most of the day's sunshine.

My last and least desirable spot would take up more room out of the yard and possibly be more difficult to weed since it will be up against a line of Texas quince and some other miscellaneous mixed weeds and bushes. But it gets the most sun of all, probably not much more than the side of the garage. I think the garage wins for the best combination of sun and useful space, but the spot in front of the kitchen wins for convenience and closer access to water than any of the other spots.

Next question is how close I can plant them. I'm willing to sacrifice some yield in return for closer spacing, and even if I plant in front of the kitchen, I might have bought too many to plant there (but not too many to grow--you can never have too much asparagus!!!). One brand of the packages just says something like plant them so many inches deep. The other brand gives a spacing of something like a foot or more apart. I'd like to get them about 4-6 inches apart. If they get too big I can move them around late in the fall after the second or third year after they've had the tops exposed to the sun to promote a healthy root system.

I do realize that I won't be able to harvest anything this year and will not get much next year, and that you can't harvest all year but have to stop around June 1st or 15th (which?) to allow the plant to nourish itself with enough sun exposure for a good root system.

One person said that once these are established, you can continue harvesting them until they start coming up out of the ground the size of a pencil, then leave them alone the rest of the year. Does that sound right? I expect the first year they will be thin and don't want to harvest past a certain date (mentioned in my question above), pencil thick or otherwise.

Do these spread any or can they be split when the crowns get really big, or do you have to raise them from seed?

I would like to plant these on Saturday this weekend, so I thought I'd ask these questions a couple of days early to get some feedback from experienced asparagus growers. I can web search for answers and have done so, but it's sometimes difficult to weed out (no pun intended) the posts that aren't based on experience and could be misleading. Here we have many people who actually give reliable answers on things like this, so I will trust answers here more than just anywhere on the web.

Thanks in advance!!!

Donald

Asparagus needs full sun which is usually defined as at least six hours per day. I have only grown Mary Washington and it gets 5' tall. Some fronds lean or get blown over in storms so your front yard might look a mess. They are initially attractive plants but get ratty and unkempt as the fronds age.

They should be spaced a proper 12" on center and placed on a mound of enriched soil with their roots fanning out. The roots run laterally as well as down and end up meshing with their neighbors. If you plant too close it will be a nightmare to separate them and result in damaged roots. It's important to keep the roots as intact as possible during transplanting.

Asparagus doesn't like to be moved around. Doing that will set them back. With that in mind, it takes three years to establish newly set crowns for harvest. You could sneak one here and there after two but that will result in thinner spears, which tend to be fibrous and less tender, the following year. Mine make thick and thin spears throughout the season. I harvest the thick ones and leave the thin. Plants produce more thick spears early on so I go by what the plant is doing and not the date which would be different depending on one's zone. Hope I covered most of your questions.

Thanks