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Hi folks,
I thought I would share the idea I had to support my Asparagus.
I have a bed that will eventually have 4 x 4m rows of Asparagus, the first two and a half rows are already planted half with Backlim and half with Gijnlim. These varieties are not supposed to need supporting but it can get quite windy on my allotment so a couple of the spears have been blown over. The rest of the bed with be planted up with crowns I am growing from seed, these are Sweet Purple, they are sweeter than green Asparagus as they have less lignin and are therefore more prone to falling over . . . so for these plants I will definitely need some kind of support.
I didn't simply want to use bamboo canes for each plant for a few reasons:
. . . so I started thinking.
I was originally thinking about this same kind of problem but for supporting Broad Beans, I wondered how I could support a 4m long double row with the least investment in materials and time and effort of maintenance and use. This led me to thinking about my Asparagus and I finally came up with the following . . .
I have this arrangement of timber at each end of the bed, it's approx 2m long by 40cm high . . .
Then for each row string (soft twine) is run from one end of the bed along one side of the Asparagus, over the cross bar at the other end of the bed and then back along the other side of the Asparagus. It is then tied tightly to the cross bar where it started from.
Tension and control is then applied to the strings by twisting them either side of each set of spears and controlling this twist by inserting a bamboo cane in between the crowns
The strings themselves control the side to side movement of the spears, the twists control the back and forth movement of the spears, there is a little give and this can be adjusted by the tension in the strings and this is adjusted by using more or fewer twists.
The canes are only needed to stop the twist in the strings from releasing and also control the position of the twist along the length of the strings, where a plant needs more control the cane can be placed a little closer, but the canes are always between the plants and not so close to the crow such that they will cause significant damage.
When a new spear grows and is large enough to need supporting the canes either side of the plant can be simply removed, releasing the tension, allowing the new spear to be inserted between the strings, the twist is then re-applied and the canes re-inserted.
I thought I would share the idea I had to support my Asparagus.
I have a bed that will eventually have 4 x 4m rows of Asparagus, the first two and a half rows are already planted half with Backlim and half with Gijnlim. These varieties are not supposed to need supporting but it can get quite windy on my allotment so a couple of the spears have been blown over. The rest of the bed with be planted up with crowns I am growing from seed, these are Sweet Purple, they are sweeter than green Asparagus as they have less lignin and are therefore more prone to falling over . . . so for these plants I will definitely need some kind of support.
I didn't simply want to use bamboo canes for each plant for a few reasons:
- multiple spears makes using a single cane less than ideal
- situating the cane(s) without damaging the crown could prove difficult
- tying and untying of string around canes and spears is a bit of a lengthy process
. . . so I started thinking.
I was originally thinking about this same kind of problem but for supporting Broad Beans, I wondered how I could support a 4m long double row with the least investment in materials and time and effort of maintenance and use. This led me to thinking about my Asparagus and I finally came up with the following . . .
I have this arrangement of timber at each end of the bed, it's approx 2m long by 40cm high . . .
Then for each row string (soft twine) is run from one end of the bed along one side of the Asparagus, over the cross bar at the other end of the bed and then back along the other side of the Asparagus. It is then tied tightly to the cross bar where it started from.
Tension and control is then applied to the strings by twisting them either side of each set of spears and controlling this twist by inserting a bamboo cane in between the crowns
The strings themselves control the side to side movement of the spears, the twists control the back and forth movement of the spears, there is a little give and this can be adjusted by the tension in the strings and this is adjusted by using more or fewer twists.
The canes are only needed to stop the twist in the strings from releasing and also control the position of the twist along the length of the strings, where a plant needs more control the cane can be placed a little closer, but the canes are always between the plants and not so close to the crow such that they will cause significant damage.
When a new spear grows and is large enough to need supporting the canes either side of the plant can be simply removed, releasing the tension, allowing the new spear to be inserted between the strings, the twist is then re-applied and the canes re-inserted.
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