3 Yr Old Asparagus Crowns

[wellie]

Hi Grapes!

In anticipation of any of you knowing, or having access to the answer to my question.....

Would it be feasibly possible for me to uproot my 3 year old Asparagus crowns and transport them in a dormant state to France, for replanting, and if not, why not?
I am quite prepared 'not to', but equally, would love to benefit from the three years I have spent nurturing them.

If the advice is that I SHOULDN'T, I'm quite prepared to accept that, if the reasons are valid, but if not, then how the ruddy hell do proper growers 'do it' then? Because you or me could buy a 3 year old crown in a dormant state from THEM, which they send to us, and then we plant it? NO?

I'd love to hear your thoughts....

I await

[pigletwillie]

I want to move some established ones as well Wellie but having spoken to a grower, I shall not be bothering.

One year old crowns are the established age at which they are sold, above this the disturbance to the root is such that they will need another year ot two of not being harvested to allow them to settle in and as such its more prudent to just buy new as the move negates the extra maturity of the plants.

All in all you gain nothing over 1 year old plants which will probably fare much better than transplanted mature ones.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Can you do them from seed? I mean, the growers don't just magic one year crowns out of thin air do they?

I'd want to try to take them with you, too, Wellie - not just the 'tlc' you have given them, but also the cost in replacing - say - 20 odd plants.

[Paulottie]

Wellie,

This was my reasoning when PW was considering the options the other day

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ead.php?t=9634

It really comes down to the % success -which is not that good apparently- so it is going to be a long time to find out and repair gaps etc. better always in the long run, to expend effort on preparing the bed to give 1 or 2 yo crowns a good start. I might also fear exporting pests and disease with them.

I am currently raising 18 plants in five inch pots. The seed was easy to germinate. I soaked it overnight and then nicked the seed casings (and my thumb) with a sharp knife. I used a sandy loam based compost, and sowed three to a pot-thinning to strongest. I am considering if I should be increasing the pot size now and bring them on for another year to weed out the females; or raise another batch to fill gaps in later and plant this lot in spring- I am running the risk of dubious parentage as my crowns were Dutch F1 and thus will not come true to type...An eccentricity really- but I had the time and space to experiment. It would be better to use a standard open pollenated variety like Connover's collosal