I’m finally settled down in a house where I plan to stay for several years, so this coming spring I will be attempting to grow some asparagus for the first time.  A few quick facts about asparagus:

  • Asparagus can be grown in most parts of the United States
  • They take about 3 years to begin yielding a crop
  • Although they prefer full sun, they will tolerate partial shade

From what I can gather based on my research (haven’t tried it yet), here are the steps for planting asparagus:

  • Prepare a bed in a sunny spot by digging up the soil, removing any weeds, and mixing in some compost or manure.
  • Dig a trench about 6 inches deep and set the asparagus crowns (which you can buy from a garden store…don’t try these from seed) about a foot apart from each other.  Cover the crowns with about 2 inches of soil.
  • As the plants begin to grow gradually work more soil in the trench until it is level with the ground around it, being careful not to smother the plants completely or cover the leaves.
  • Water weekly if it does not rain.

Now here is where it gets a little tricky…you have to resist the urge to pick any of the asparagus in the first year!  They need this first year to grow out their roots, so let the plants grow unharvested the first summer.  They will eventually sprout foliage, which in time will yellow and die.  At the end of the first winter you should cut away the foliage and throw it away; don’t use it for compost because it may harbor asparagus beetle eggs.

During the second year you can cut a few asaparagus stalks when they reach finger size, but you should let most of them grow and sprout foliage.  Keep the plants watered, mulched and fertilized.

Year three is when you actually get to harvest a reasonable amount of asparagus.  At this point the roots should be well established and it should be safe to harvest most of them when they are 6 inches or so tall.  Do make sure to leave a few spears on each plant so that they can feed themselves and remain in condition for the next year though!

In general, each mature asparagus plant (3 years or older) should send up between 15 and 20 spears per year, and can keep producing at this rate for 10 to 20 years.

 Tips for Small Spaces:

This is not a plant that I would attempt to grow in a container, unless it was a very large one and I was planning on keeping it for many years. 

I do plan on doing my best to squeeze the most out of my space though.  Although the ideal spacing seems to be 1 foot between plants, I will be trying to fit 8 plants evenly spaced in a plot of land that is about 4 square feet in the hopes that I can get enough asparagus to last two people through the summer.  I’ll report back here in a few years to see how my space-saving experiment goes!