Been coming in good for a few weeks now. But today was the first day for a few purples.
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Do you all think I could use cardboard on a work in process 2nd yr asparagus bed to keep the weeds down or is it too late for that? The thought came to me while reading in TNHunter’s thread about roto-tilling vs not for creating raspberry beds.
Here is the backstory. I am a total newb to asparagus. Last year early spring I tilled a new bed for asparugus along the fence( I can’t remeber how long exactly but I think around 30’ x 3’). To prep it I tilled, dug it out and threw in a layer of thick branches/small logs that I had been saving to make it hugelkultur since we are pretty dry here. I then filled it in enough to cover the hugel material and made an ~4-6" deep trench down the middle to plant in. I put in the fertilizer, planted my crowns and covered them with an inch or two of soil. I back filled a time or two as they grew but still haven’t entirely pushed all the soil I initially dug out on top of them. The only growth was from the crowns, no spreading yet, I’m not sure how long that takes. I was planning on marking the bed edges as soon as the soil is thawed and leveling the remaining soil over top which will probably be another couple of inches. Then putting down a 6-8" tall frame and filling it with good seed free bagged soil and compost that I got last year for a deal. I figured that 6" bagged soil top layer will inhibit the seeds in the native soil from ever germinating unless the bed is disturbed enough to bring them to the surface; but it won’t stop the bindweed/creeping charley(or creeping jenny depending on where you grew up), chokecherry suckers, or native goji suckers. My garden area was an overgrowth of brush, weeds, and juniper that I cleared out a few years ago so there is millions of seeds in the soil and the suckering roots that were deeper than I can cultivate.
So, do the asparugus crowns spread much or send out new spear shoots along the developing root system the 2nd year? Will laying down cardboard hinder my bed development? I orignially figured I would just use my long old garden knife to stab into the soil and cut out the competitors shoots until they hopefully or eventually succumb to root exhaustion. But, if I can lay cardboard down after I level out the soil and then put the bagged soil on top of that, it could greatly reduce the future work. This also would mean the cardboard would have to break down over this coming summer enought to permit the future asparagus spears to push through.
All the brown tops from the first years growth are still in place so I would know where to cut openings for the crowns. But even if it is possible to use cardboard at this point could that be problematic in the sense that some of the suckers and creepers would then find the openings where the crowns are and then grow right out with crowns making it impossible to ever get rid of them? Just looking for some thoughts to this brainstorm.
I had a pretty large asparagus bed for a good 5 years and it was the best thing in my garden and could not wait for the taste of fresh asparagus every spring…but keeping up with weeds and asparagus beetles made it not worth it so I got rid of all 100 + crowns. The answer to your question though, in my opinion would be that cardboard would work but it possibly would hinder the natural growth of the crowns.
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Having lousy luck with asparagus, tragically. I planted 15 crowns last year in two beds and only 4 of them are still alive this year. I’m feeding them well and hoping that they do better for next year. Couple questions for people who are better at this than I am:
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Nearly all the crowns came back in one of my beds, but the new spears were all snapped off right at ground-level. They were soft and sad-looking by the time I saw them, so it was hard to tell what got them. They’re in a new bed pretty far from any grass or weeds and mulched, so I have no idea what happened or how to prevent it next year.
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I’m starting some new stuff from seed. It’s June and they’ve just germinated, should I transplant this year or hold them for a year and put them out next spring?
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Best way to bolster the health of current crowns? Two of them are pretty spindly. That bed is in a spot I don’t often get to, and I think they got attacked by asparagus beetle last year before I knew what asparagus beetle even was.