Asparagus Raised Beds

[Holly Daze]

Hi all,

I have built a raised asparagus bed. Do you think I should lay down weed suppressant before I fill it with soil/compost etc?
Cheers

[bario1]

No, I think that would be counter productive... asparagus have very deep roots, that's what enables them to be so vigorous in Spring. To reduce the need for weeding, use heavy mulches, these can also feed the plants.

[Jay-ell]

How deep is the soil your adding going to be? I wouldn't advise putting weed suppressant at the bottom of beds. Believe me it will eventually provide a great wicking material for all the weeds that have attached their roots into it (I'm digging it out a bed at a time from my plots).

If you're worried about any perennial roots being left after you dug them out (you did dig them out didn't you ) then some cardboard laid down so that the edges overlap should help stop any shoots pushing up yet break down to allow the asparagus roots to delve down.

[plam]

Another no vote from me - they need good drainage, although the membrane is permeable I'm sure it must keep some of the water in.

[geepee]

Asparagus thrives in DEEP ,free drainage beds.
my advice is to make sure you have this at planting .
keep a vigilant eye on any weed growth and pull them out by the roots on site .
Once you have a canopy of FERN ,Weeds should slow down.
Cut ferns back to ground level once they start to die back inabout late autumn ,early winter.
Apply at least 2'' of Mulch and,or FYM on top and sit back to await an explosion of new spears.

Motto is ...they hate wet feet and weed infestation.
Gp

[Holly Daze]

Hi and thank you all for your invaluable advice. The blocks used to build the bed are about 1 ft high and we have ordered a whole heap of topsoil, well rotted manure and some multipurpose compost. Have laid some gravel at the bottom. Will get crowns in spring. Can anyone recommend a reliable supplier of crowns - we plan to harvest in 3 years. Oh yes, any advice on varieties. I would like three different varieties- five of each. I am telling you. These are going to be the most costly asparagus ever! 😂

H

[bario1]

I got mine from Pom@na Fruits, 12 each of Guelph Millenium and Mondeo. They both crop well now, one better than the other, but unfortunately i can't remember which is which

One thing I will say about your plan is this - if you get just five crowns of each variety, and they crop at different times (early, mid, late), you may find that you never have enough spears ready at the same time for a really satisfying plate full.... also, how many of you are there? Could you fit more than 15 in your bed? How big is it?

[It never rains..it pours]

Agree on no to weed fabric, as asparagus roots go very deep, 10 feets when older
https://www.soilandhealth.org/wp-con...010137ch6.html
If near a beach seaweed on top controls a lot of weeds
Would add manure at the bottom. They dont like acid soil
Found here Gijnlim grown from seed the cheapest method , no fusharium or other disease/insect risk but more work (25 seeds £8) they seem to tolerate wet winters better, which us northeners get, compared to some of the fancy varieties. With seeds I have got 95% survival, with crowns only 50% but that may be down to me being useless and wet winters. But depends if after yield or purple color etc. Also all male varieties are higher yielding as no energy spent on seed production

[It never rains..it pours]

Some yield trials below, albeit from poland, but same as what I have experienced ie purples poor yield compared to greens and highest yielders all male varieties. The highest yielder was Mondeo which Bario recommended above. Here found Gijnlim slightly better but thats because im on clay with high winter rainfall plus im useless

http://www.inhort.pl/files/journal_I...%282%29_16.pdf

Asparagus cultivation

[Holly Daze]

Thanks all for your helpful advice. No weed suppressant then. Bario1 - there are two of us. The bed is 2.5 metres x 1.25 metres.
H

[It never rains..it pours]

Some info below that I used on planting density and yield. 88,888 plants hectare was best in year 3 producing 2855 kg ha. So as you have 3.125m2 then that is 27.75 plants and 0.89kg yield. If you have a walk way around the bed then it could be argued your light collection area is bigger than 3.125m so can move yield higher, also newer varieties yield higher. Being as half mine failed to come up it was good planted a lot as its hard to add more later, I have found the older plants ferns just smoother out the younger ones so killing them, unless on the outside of the bed where they still get light

http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/...4/652.full.pdf

[bario1]

Realistically though, I don't think you could get 27.75(??) plants in a 8'x4' bed. I think the OP's original plan of 15 is more sensible - or, for the sake of neatness, two rows of 8? You could potentially fit another staggered row in the middle if you planted the outer rows near the edges of the bed, but you'd lose a lot of the surrounding paths to ferns between June and November!

[It never rains..it pours]

Yes agree Bario1 thats too many but pleased I used that rate which was 30 in my 3.25m2 plot, as nearly half mine died so have 17 left which seems about right to my inexperienced eye. So think planting number is down to how many one can get to live Thought I was pretty hopeless to get so many die but the second bed from seed, where the ferns are as big or bigger this year than the first bed says to me part of the issue may have been the crowns I brought from a well known online name may have been below quality

[Holly Daze]

Yes, that’s the problem. Getting the crowns from a reliable source. Thank you rooter for the link , it was very interesting. I have had the delivery of one tonne of top soil. Will add well rotted manure and compost. I will plant 16 crowns. Have decided on only two varieties based on the advice that the yield may not be enough for us. Just for the hell of it, I am going to plant a row of crowns in some stoney, deep soil which has not been prepped and see what the yield is. I have tested the soil and it is alkaline so I think that is good. Anyone disagree? I will keep you all posted and give you the results in a couple of year’s time. 😀

[It never rains..it pours]

Uk yield trial links below, more like 1kg M2 so that's 3kg in theory. As you said they will be expensive asparagus like mine , but hopefully get 20 years output

https://horticulture.ahdb.org.uk/sit...l%20Report.pdf
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