Starting Asparagus Help Please

I received some bare-root asparagus plants from Parks Seed Co and planted them as indicated---at the bottoms of holes about 8" deep, with roots spread out and covered lightly with earth/compost and tip sticking up above the surface. Shoots are supposed to begin growing from the exposed tips and I am supposed to fill in remaining depth of holes with compost as they grow.

My question is that since I have obviously had to keep the soil in the holes watered, some of the tips are covered over a bit with silt. Do the tips have to be sticking out and exposed? Will their being just a bit covered hurt the growth process? I would prefer not to have to keep uncovering the tips because I think it could injure the tips and hurt the growth process.

Also, does anyone know about how long it ought to be before green growth begins. It has been about 7 days since I planted the plants. One of them has already put up a shoot. None of the rest have.

I have been told it would have been better to wait till spring to plant asparagus, but if so, there is nothing I can do about that now.

Any help/answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

This message was edited Jul 11, 2006 11:30 AM

A little soil's not going to make a difference. Don't worry. It's true early spring is best (Parks Seed should have told you that!), but it sounds like yours are doing fine. Mine started sending up shoots in the first two weeks. Do keep an eye out for the asparagus beetle; your shoots will be especially vulnerable as they'll be small and so young. Good luck!

Thanks, Zeppy.

Well, Parks was having a (get-rid-of) sale, so they wouldn't have told me. I guess the idea was, "You get them cheaply because you're buying them during the off-season."

Thank you for the warning about the asparagus beetle! Will Safer Pyrethrin work, or Sevin? Just bought some pyrethrin from Safer, and would prefer not to have to buy something else. Guess I'll just read the label. But will get some spray on the newly emerging shoot as soon as possible.

Thanks again.

Well, I'm more of the pick-em-off into a pail of soapy water type, myself. I don't spray much because all the "good guy" bugs that eat the beetle eggs and larvae are harmed by the spray. I just keep an eye on the shoots/ferns, and every few days I pick off the beetles, or larvae, and wipe any eggs away. Works for me! I expect either of the pesticides you mention would work, but I'm not sure. I think folks spray those in the evening because of the damage to honeybees, but your asparagus won't be attracting honeybees anyway. :)

My spring planting of aspargus roots was nearly a dud. The instructions for setting them deeply was a trap for me with so much wet weather. I started some seeds and these have done well. I did not set these in a water catching trench. I think that if they need to be deep that I would start with a raised bed effect.

That stinks, Indy. I ordered from Nourse Farms and they made a point of telling me that if my soil was heavy clay I should not set them so deeply. I'm grateful for that piece of advice. Mine are in a raised bed, but even so, it would've been bad if I'd dug very deeply.

I started an asparagus bed AGAIN this year. The other years were half hearted. This year I was determined! Out of the 25 crowns I planted, 24 came up. If they make it through the winter, I will feel succesful.
From what I understand, if you plant asparagus correctly, the rest is simple. Plenty of organic matter, keep the weeds off and don't over harvest the first couple of years. When I was doing research I found out a couple of things I did not know... asparagus is more likely to drowned from too much water that die from not enough. You could put salt on the soil surface to eliminate weeds, asparagus can tolerate high salt content (sounds scary to me). Deeper plantings produce thicker but fewer spears.

I am not an organic gardner but I avoid chemicals when ever possible. Please do not treat plants for insects they do not have. Marketing people (no offense intended, they have to work too) are trying to program us for "prevention". If you don't have the bugs, you don't need to kill them. I agree with Zeppy, try mechanical means first if necessary, try soaps and naturals first.

Indy, the same happened to our first potato crop. We ended up with a raised bed. The tater plants are awesome!

Well, it's been pretty dry here of late. So not too worried about too much water. I paid $3.98 plus a few cents shipping for 10 plants, so if they turn out to be duds, it will be a waste of time, but not much money lost. I am supposed to fill the holes with compost, not earth, so will be sure to do that, since compost is much lighter than the timber soil I have. Regarding insects: Safer pyrethrins are pretty safe and natural, as they are derived from plants. There are plenty of cases where prevention is far better than waiting till you actually see damage. For instance, if certain insects start sucking on cucumber or squash vines and spread wilt to them, it will too late for insecticide at that point. Also, with the little, itty-bitty asparagus shoots, I think the beetles would destroy them in no time and then spray would be useless. Same with fruit trees and other plants. Waiting till there are signs of damage can be dangerous, in my opinion.