asparagus question - can't believe I don't know the answer!

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asparagus question - can't believe I don't know the answer!

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Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 9:02 pm Post subject: asparagus question - can't believe I don't know the answer!
we're in the middle of our first proper asparagus season and very nice it is too. But...do we have to harvest all the spears from every plant while we harvest, or will they stop throwing up new spears if we let some grow and develop ferns etc? I can't find the answer in any of my books and I'm not sure which search terms to try for a proper answer on the web...anyone able to let me know?

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 12:33 am Post subject:
Hm..sounds familiar...maybe a new thread is in order..."coppicing asparagus...."

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 6:39 am Post subject:

Er...I hope you won't take it the wrong way if I say "eh?"

Apical dominance, apparently, could be the problem, if there is one. There is a cluster of buds already formed and the next won't form, until the last is either cut, or becomes a fully fledged fern.

Sounds like nonsense to me, in the case of asparagus, because most crowns have several spears up at any one time, of differing ages, yet I keep thinking I've read about it somewhere and want to reassure myself.

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 7:30 am Post subject:
Just cut all the ones that are ready - the rest will grow on, and you cut them when they are ready. At the end of May, or thereabouts, stop cutting altogether, and those left will grow on up to form the ferns; other smaller ones will come along behind, so you will ahve ferns of different heights and ages. They need a good rest, so cutting has to stop quite soon, hence the short asparagus season.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 8:03 am Post subject:
I know about leaving them to rest, what I don't know is, if some of them escape, and are too tall/thin/starting to open to bother with eating, can I leave them on the plant and carry on harvesting, or will leaving some spears to grow stop/reduce the rest of the spears? Should I simply cut everything that's big enough to eat or bigger, even if some of them go straight on to the compost heap?

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 1:31 pm Post subject:

Bugs wrote:

Should I simply cut *everything* that's big enough to eat or bigger, even if some of them go straight on to the compost heap?

I think that's the idea.
My supposition is that if you want to keep on "coppicing" (cutting off shoots), then you have to persuade the plant to keep throwing up new ones. If something gets established, the need/desire/tendancy to throw up more has to be diminished...
By keeping on cutting till end-May/mid-June, you are making the plant "keep trying".
By letting some shoots 'grow on' now, you will likely reduce this year's potential crop... but you may well strengthen the plant, so improving next year's. I believe this is why in early years, one should not take much of a crop - rather one should allow the plants to establish better, by giving them a longer top growth season, and not draining their vigor by making them send up too many shoots.
(Just my theoretical understanding, rather than calloused experience!)

bimini

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 156

Posted: Sun May 15, 05 8:36 pm Post subject:
Yes that's right cut all spears including thin and slug damages ones during the cutting season.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Sun May 15, 05 9:08 pm Post subject:

Thanks Dougal and Bimini...that's what I was thinking, but I'm never quite sure whether I have put together the various things I've read properly, and when you go to look them up it seems the pixies have been stealing words from the books again.

I chopped off the other stems on Friday when I made a fairly major harvest...there were a few more youngsters on their way and I think there will be another meal in it but that's our lot for this year.

I do know that when we get some more space, one of the first things to go in after the fruit trees will be a large, well prepared asparagus bed (I'm aiming for field...but that might be a little ambitious

)

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