Asparagus questions by a new grower

General Gardening
#1

I have an asparagus bed planted last year with supposedly two year jersey knight crowns. Several of the crowns produced berries.
Question 1. Is jersey knight supposed to be an all male hybrid?
Question 2. I now have tiny fern-like plants appearing usually close to a crown. Are these coming up from seed? Should I leave them or pull them?
Question 3. We cut spears enough for two meals. Some of the spears were small and we left those. Now more crowns are sprouting and there are some really nice spears. Can we cut a few more or now that we have left some to go to fern should we just leave them all?
Question 4. Should I dig up the female crowns…may be as many as a third of total crowns?

Thanks!
Katy

#2

Katy,

I grew 14 acres of asp. in a far distant time

  1. Jersey Knight at one time was. If you didn’t get it from the licensed grower probably not.
  2. Pull them. They’re coming of the crown but will give asp. beetles and other pests a place to feed
    3.You should be able to harvest for 2 wks., then allow the ferns to grow. Next year you can go 6 wks.
  3. I probably would. Seedling asp. is a weed and difficult to control. Replace the female crowns with J. Giant or Supreme.

Best asp you ever ate, right?:slight_smile:

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#3

Yes it was!!! :+1: Fresh asparagus is wonderful and even better that it was spears that we had worked for and waited for! I had to convince my DH to start the bed—this year he helped me put in an even bigger bed with about 60 crowns of jersey giant. We had put it off for so long because it wasn’t a quick harvest. So glad we have it going now.

Thanks for the input. We had a very early spring and the crowns started sprouting in late February/early March. It took over a week to gather a meals’ worth but the first spears were eaten raw at the bed…!!! Now the bed is filling up with shoots and most of them are nice thick ones.

I can’t imagine 14 acres… That’s a lot of work!

#4

There are other threads on asp in the forum. Much more good stuff in them also. Asp. doesn’t compete well with grass especially. Do everything in you power to keep grass out and your asp. will give you large crops for 25-30 yrs. Enjoy!!

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