Everything Asparagus

 

Recently I received this email from June in Wisconsin. I have gotten several emails about asparagus recently and wanted to just touch base on growing asparagus........

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge in your farm. What a blessing to me! Would you please explain, burn the aspuargus old plant when they are done every year, in order to prevent it from disease (My husband and I just plant it last year, 10 plant). Would you please teach more detail on how to hatch chick, how kind of tool will need and setting and how.  3yr ago we bought some layer and 1 rooster but the rooster didn't live through.
Thank you for taking your time to help.
Happy Mother's day to you
June in Wisconsin

June thank you for the Mother's Day greeting and I will try to answer some of your questions. 

The first thing every spring this is what my asparagus bed looks like. This bed is almost 16 years old and still producing. As soon as the weather starts warming usually about turkey season every year you will see the spears begin to emerge. I do not cover my bed in winter.  Once the sprouts emerge I cut everything LARGER THAN A PENCIL. I recommend that if you are starting a new bed don't cut it for two years. I never cut my asparagus past the first week of June. After that I simply let my asparagus come up and the fronds develop. 

At this time I weed the beds and apply rabbit manure every year. Asparagus are heavy feeders.

I string a string and use a shovel and edge the bed to keep the grass back and have a clean edge for mowing. you can add a thin layer of straw as mulch at this time if you want just not too deep so as not to rot the crowns. 

As the season progresses the plants will bloom. ( The female plants) 

The blooms will become berries

The berries will ripen. The birds love them and when they eat them then I get small asparagus coming up where ever the birds poop. That is why you see them along fence lines, under trees and bushes. Anywhere the birds roost and poop. I get lots of them around my bird bath.  

Then comes frost. The fronds turn brown like everything else in the landscape. The sap goes down to the root and the top of the plant dies. That is when in winter or very early spring you can chop those fronds down, mow them down with the mower or even burn them off. That destroys any overwintering asparagus beetles that may be hiding in the foliage or any dormant overwintering diseases. Burn or dispose of the dead fronds and start all over the next year. I have managed to keep my asparagus patches thriving for almost two decades like this. 

Once your fronds are picked they can be frozen or canned. 

Hope this helps answer any asparagus questions and good luck with your patch June. 

My next post will be on incubators and hatching eggs so check back tomorrow June for the rest of your answers. 

Check on the canning page above for recipes on canning and freezing asparagus.  

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter