If you could only plant one asparagus to start with, would it be green or purple?
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But which green or purple varieties? So many to choose from! I would go down the purple route, if only because I like growing purple vegetables.
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Crown wise I only have purple but I got some seed from Baker Creek that is supposed to grow into the amount you can eat in 2 years. This will be my 3rd year for my purple and 3rd for my green so it did not save me any time. What I will say is that these unknown colors to the public help. Any time you have a color of a variety like a green gage or a purple asparagus it helps against theft of produce because many do not realize it is edible or what it is. I also think the purple varieties have something like 15% more sugars in them. I have found purple passion to be the asparagus everyone sells though. There are other cultivars of purple but they are a lot harder to get. I would say there is only a few cultivar of asparagus many sell compared to many other fruit/vegetable too. There are over 7k apple cultivars and with online nursery you can find lists pages deep of apples, cherries etc. but not with asparagus.
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In addition if buying it I would either get it from Nourse or I would wait for it to go on sale at Stark Bros. I think I bought my purple passion crowns with a 10 pack for 3.99 dollars and they are selling it for 18 right now.
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I would not want only one variety because there are differences in their timing. However, if I could only have one I would give up the earlier ones and choose purple passion. It is incredible here.
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In case it helps here in z3 (closer to z2 than 4a) the old guelph millenium does great. 300 plants produce around 8lbs/day peak season.
Stuff grows like bamboo, it’s crazy fast.
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$13.20 per 10 crowns at Ison’s right now, 20% off. Not as good as $3.99 obviously…but still better than $18.99.
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Up to you, I was trying to choose just ONE but I really want purple AND green, darn it!
Great to hear, thank you! I had to look up “guelph”. 
It is worth noting I have had my purple and I have had green from the store. It was not some crazy different taste like the difference of a pluot and plum. It was fresher but any asparagus picked fresh from the garden will be fresher. I think they have figured out asparagus is best within around 15 minutes after harvest.
Wow, only 15 minutes! Well, I can’t wait to try fresh from my own garden!
Keep in mind with asparagus they are often times selling only one or two year old crowns and crowns need to be at least 3 years old to successful harvest with having it come back next year.
I know I will have to wait. They are 1 yr crowns.
Stark bros has purple passion on sale for 8.99 per 10 pack. (I’ve never bought anything from them, just popped up in my email today, so I have no knowledge on the decency of their plants). But figured I’d pass it along.
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Thank you, that is a great price!
Do you know the difference in roots and crown descriptions, or are they all the same?
Some say “starts” and some say “1 year old crowns”.
Are starts 1 yr behind crowns?
I have no idea about anything asparagus related, other than it tastes good cooked in butter with some salt 
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Same here, that’s why I have questions. 
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