Anyone in zone 6 see their Asparagus yet ?

I have Asparagus planted and this will be it's 3rd year. I don't see any spears coming up yet. So many of my plants' roots have been eaten by voles, I'm wondering if my asparagus is going to be gone too.

Hopefully, it's just too early. If you are in zone 6, are yours coming up yet ?

Haven't seen mine yet, and I was just out there weeding it, so I really looked.

That makes me feel a little better. Maybe it will be up soon for both of us. Yummy.

Nothing here yet, just lots of d*#m chickweed. It is going to warm up this week so should be soon!

(Zeppy runs outside in a panic to throw fertilizer and chicken poo on asparagus bed)

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area. Supposedly, zone 17. some of my asparagus is up, but I'm not cutting, again, this year. I've redone the beds twice and have probably planted at least 25 plants, but I only get shoots from about 7 places. In the fall, should I re-do the bed again? How should I amend the soil? Can I sucessfully transplant the healthy plants? Any advice would be helpful.

That's strange. I guess you've checked the pH...

dun1kirk, what do you mean you've redone the beds twice? What are you doing when you redo? pH came to my mind too.

I've added compost and tried to dig in new plants. No, unfortunately I have not checked the pH. Please tell me what it should be and what to add if it is incorrect. Thanks.

Nourse farms says that the pH should be 7.2. Everything I've read says it needs to be on the "sweet" side (7.0 +) as opposed to acidic. If your pH is too low, you need to add lime. In CT, we mail in our soil samples to U Conn for testing. I think it costs $5-10 around here. They tell you the fertility and the pH of the soil. It's kind of a neat thing to do. Anyway, you can google soil pH test California, as see what comes up.

I have home tests and a pH soil probe, both of which have worked accurately for me.

bluekat, I also have a huge crop of chickweed. I try not to hate anything but it comes close for chickweed. I was stunned when I saw Johnny's was selling chickweed seed. I know you can eat it but no thanks.

I'll trade you your chickweed for my quackgrass any day. And I don't much like chickweed.

Hi Zeppy, how about if I throw in all my crabgrass too, and a horde of Japanese Beetles? ;-)
Rose

Oh, I won't even notice your JBs: I'll be swimming in them by June. :)

Yes, asparagus will suffer in strongly acidic soil. It's worth checking that pH.

I'm 6a. None yet. Mine's a well established bed. I think that it's just too early.

I also have plenty of chickweed and ground ivy and quackgrass... Also, my onions wintered over, so I have green onions. The kale survived, but it was too leggy so I tossed it. The chard not only survived, but is making new leaves, so I left it alone......but no asparagus--yet.

I will trade you my chickweed for.....? Nothing. No worries, at least those roots are not like dandelion - such a long tap root!

I wrote kale? Gosh, it was past my bedtime. I meant collards. I'll keep an eye on my asparagus & let you know when it appears. : )

I have a new Asparagus bed of 2 year old crowns I planted this winter and the sprouts are starting to come up all over the place. I'm in zone 7b so it shouldn't be long to get up to zone 6.

I have a dumb question though... In addition to the sprouts I recognize from my dinner plate, there are a lot of what looks grass leaves to me... Are those part of the Asparagus plant or are they weeds??? I got ready to pull them and then thought well that's kind of coincidental they came out at the same time as the sprouts.

Jeff

You will have plenty of other responses to this but what you will see are small greenish brown tips, sort of like pencils, emerging from the soil. If there don't get picked they will turn in feathery fern like foliage.
Wish I had the where with all to clear some sod and start myself a bed. One of these years.

They may well be grass Jeff. Like roseone says only the spears come up first, no foliage at all. The spears open into the ferny foliage if not picked. I say pull one!

Haha don't tempt me, I'm sposed to leave the bed alone this year...

Pull the grass - can you post a picture? I feel your pain - I am not supposed to pick any either.

I don't think you'd mistake asparagus- even the little ones look like really skinny version of spears that you buy. Yeah, it's hard not to cut any! I have read that you could cut them as long as it's producing spears bigger than a pencil. maybe if you have a couple big ones you can cheat.........eat it right there in the garden. No spears in 7a.

I will take a pic tomorrow if I remember the camera. I looked at it more closely today though and I think I have an idea what it may be. I mulched the asparagus with wheat straw and it looks like there may have been some seed in the straw...

No pictures from here. They are now buried under 7 inches of snow!

Yeah, wasn't that a shocker! I guess the cold weather they were forecasting for Sunday got here a little early and turned our thunderstorms into slush and snow!

I'm not even growing asparagus (I have a friend who lets me "glean" in their family patch when they're tired of picking), but I'm still lurking on this thread, LOL. I keep thinking I should put in a patch of my own, but I'm having trouble deciding on the "perfect location." I should just build a bed and then move them if/when necessary....

Did I read somewhere that strawberries make good companions for asparagus (like around the edges of a raised bed), or is that a figment of my imagination?

Critter,
My companion planting guide book suggests planting tomatoes along side asparagus. It suggests intercropping bush beans and spinach with strawberries. Lettuce is good as a border. I've experimented a lot with companion planting. I'll keep watching this thread to see if anyone has other suggestions.

PeggieK,
Just ran out in the cold & checked. No asparagus yet though the ground is cracking. Just dandelions so far. : (

Greenbrain, thanks for looking that up for me! I was hoping there would be another perennial I could grow with the asparagus... but a border of cherry tomatoes trailing over the edge of a raised bed could work also! (I want to do a tall raised bed for the asparagus, at least 18", because my soil is so awful except where I've been amending it for the garden beds.)

I was thinking that this was the year I'd get some strawberries in... and since I've started too many tomatoes for the main veggie bed, it would be great to have another place to plant some green beans! (It's sounding like the asparagus bed may be put on hold again, LOL.)

Thank you! :-)

I hear asparagus is a heavy feeder. Mine has mostly succumbed to beetles over some years of attack I'm down to one nice clump and it's not showing yet.

Here's a helpful tip about companion planting and asparagus. I ran across another companion planting guide with explanations. Tomatoes and asparagus are good companions because asparagus repels nematodes & tomato repels asparagus beetles. I can't do this every year because of crop rotation, and I'm not going to move my asparagus bed every year. This article also suggests planting strawberries with lettuce. Maybe the lettuce is a decoy crop for slugs.

I was looking through my nursery orders from the past 7 years (I've saved them all in a folder.) and I found my asparagus order from Spring 2000. That tells me how old my bed is and that I ordered from Gurney 10 hybrid jersey knights for $7.65. I guess that I got my money's worth. Which variety are you growing?

Sometimes companion planting makes sense, but with asparagus you have to plant something that isn't as heavy a feeder (so it won't compete too much), is an annual (again: competition), has fairly shallow roots (like lettuce), and won't get too shaded by the ferns nor shade the ferns too much. I grow basil and other annual herbs with (between the rows of) my asparagus: that's all. A perennial herb would be a big mistake, as it would take over the bed.

Zeppy, that makes sense... and that argues against planting too closely to tomatoes, which seem to be fairly heavy feeders. Does the basil seem to drive off beetles and other foes?

Ah HAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, Critter. I wasn't laughing at you. I was laughing at the memory of last year... out there every day, picking, picking, picking the durn asparagus beetles off of the stalks.

Oh, well.

Now ya'll stop talking about this asparagus beetle. I have yet to see one (first year last year) and I don't want to be jinxed!!

Hmmm... I don't normally prune suckers off my tomatoes, but if the beetles don't like the scent, maybe some tomato clippings would drive them off?

LOL, no worries, Kim... we don't have asparagus beetles in MD! ;-)

I am thinking Zeppy would gladly send some this way. I am sure we won't have any so no need to prune your tomatoes to ward off the nonexistent asparagus beetles off your nonexistent asparagus plants. LOLOL

I have a new weed in the garden, probably from putting in tons of woodchips on top of the raised beds. I don't know what it is but I love it. Instead of having to dig halfway to China to get rid of a weed that has a leaf like a geranium, I can now easily pull this weed out with one hand and hardly any pressure. I'm letting it go a bit longer so the other weeds don't come back before the rainy season is over. Hooray!

ROFLOL.... yes, I am a bit too concerned for somebody whose asparagus bed is still in the planning stage!

I actually grow a row of marigolds between the tomatoes and asparagus. I didn't have pests on either. Maybe it's the marigolds.