I mowed the 2015 fronds this morning and will apply roundup and pre-emerge this afternoon before rain and spear emerge. OH BOY, CAN HARDLY WAIT!!!
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I just burned mine last weekend.
What do you use as a pre-emergent?
Prowl H2O and some canning salt. You did not see me write that!
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PMed you
I got behind this spring, my spears are an inch tall now. Doesn’t the salt kill the crowns? Or are you using only a small amount?
The salt won’t kill asp as long as you keep it directly off the crown. You also need to be judicious. I never use more than 1-2 oz per 1000 ftsq. Dissolve 2 tsp in 1 gal. water and spray 1000 sq ft.
Jealous. We over harvested our asparagus patch last year so decided to take a year off to let them regain vigor. Been really hard to watch them come up and not take any.
Chikn,
Are you still growing asparagus commercially, or just for personal use now?
I’m surprised you are using salt. Is there some advantage of salt over commercial herbicides?
I just grow a small patch of asparagus for personal use, so I don’t know much about it. As I recall you’ve grown enough to make your eyes turn green. Do tell your secrets.
Just for personal use now, about 10’ x 250’. I like asp. Sorta like Cityman’s peach orchard.
A few years ago the literature of commercial asp. started to talk about the old practice of salting asp. fields to control weeds. I had been told during the years how resistant asp. was to salty and polluted soil, in fact it was practice to spread rock salt on fields.That seems to be unresponsible to me because you might not always want to grow asp in that place. Some antedotal evidence from my own field convinced my that 1-2 oz/ 1000’ of salt helped control seedling asp and yellow(not giant) foxtail. That seems strange that salt was effective against seedling asp but not the crowns until you remember how deep crowns are planted and that asp seed is on top of the soil. Seedling asp is the worst weed in asp, no controls except shielded roundup sprays which work on crown asp too. Foxtail will ruin an asp planting in no time if not controlled.
Weed control in asp is the limiting factor in production as long as you’ve placed P and K in the planting furrow. Slow release N is surface applied every year, if I remember at 70-100#/ ac. I used 100% sulfur coated urea as sulfur has become a limiting factor in Iowa. We treated pre-emerge w/ prowl and roundup. Asp. can’t be up w/ roundup. After final pick clean harvest, we would drag the field several times with a Fuerst Harrow to knock all the asp off and spray field with round up and prowl again, this was always scary because of the risk of killing your plants with the roundup. Spray for asp.beetle if 10% of spears are tip curling after a clean pick, sevin was best. Mow old fronds close in spring before frost goes out. Plant crowns so the roots are touching 4-6" deep. Harvest 2nd year for 3 wks.
There you are Olpea, everything I do for asp. That’s as long winded as I get.
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Hey, Chikn. When is your harvest? I might have to take a long drive with an empty trunk. 
Starts about Mother’s day normal years. This year will be earlier. If you show up with an empty trunk, you gotta help pick!
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You’re only about a two day drive away. Right? I’ll just tell everyone that I’m running out to get some asparagus and I’ll be back in five days. 