what is potential of asparagus crowns from tesco

[andy12345]

They were in a poly bag with soil and the crown. It looked like it was ready to start yielding as it had thin, mini asparagus shoots. I am wondering what sort of yield I can expect from this if I plant it now. Will I get a couple of shoots, or a lot. I could'nt really see much of a crown at all. I did not have time to read the label unfortunately.

[TPeers]

If you plant it now you can't cut any spears for a year or so!

The plant which grows will need all its shoots to keep it alive this year, next year, if you get a lot of shoots you can cut one or two - at most 1/4 of all the shoots that come up. In subsiquent years up to but no more than 1/3 to 1/2 the spears can be cut and you must stop cutting at the end of May at the latest, allowing the remaining spears to grow to give the plant a chance to regenerate and get some strength for the next years crop.

As to the crop from one crown.... 2 to 5 spears next year and depending on how good a crown it is maybe 5-8 spears a year there after?

[andy12345]

Oops,
after reading your post, I realised that, as the asparagus edible part is actually containing the leaves, it would be silly to eat the part that helps to grow the rootstock itself - the bloody leaves..


Are there any good products that can potentially help increase the yield, or should I just concentrate on nutrients and ground preparation?

[TPeers]

Ground preparation!

A good crown produces shoots for 10 to 15 years so give it somewhere nice to live!

My books go on about digging a trench at least a foot deep, putting 3-4 inch layer of well rotted manure then lightly capping with an inch or so of the soil leaving a central ridge over which you place the crowns with the growing point on the ridge top. Then they differ.....

One book says to shove the earth back in and wait the other that you cover the roots only, wait for shoots and slowly back fill to the tip of the shoots - a bit like earthing up spuds.

I tried the first method and half the crowns have bitten the dust - so I will be re-planting this spring using method two!

The upshot of all this is that asparagus hates to be in standing water and must be given good drainage, it also likes to be richly fed so don't stint on the manure/compost and give it a good feed of pelleted manure or what ever your fertaliser of choice may be in May at the end of cutting.

The other thing to note is that you can't hoe an asparagus bed! If you chop the tip off a shoot - that's it, it won't grow any more. So careful and gentle hand weeding is the order of the day.