Asparagus

[schmism]

Ok the previous owners of my property raised asparagus.

i have aprox 5 rows 60' long of asparagus that has been growing in the patch for 15+ years. (i have a lot of it aparently)

the trouble is it hasnt been kept after for the past few years.

the rows (garden) you can still make out but is mostly grown over with grass by now.

I also have an a bundance of salt in my barn that was left.

some have suggested that the asparagus patch was salted?

My parents are craizy about the stuff (personnaly dont care for it) and have planned to harvest some this spring.

what do i need to know about getting my asparagus patch back in business? (literly, they have signs in the barn like they sold it out front)

some search says i can spray a "roundup" type weed killer before it emerges to kill off the grass around it without harming it.... is this correct? should i be doing this now?

last fall i mowed it all down with the brush hog... it had gone all bushy, but before it turned real cold it was poping back up in what i recognize as asparagus (although we didnt pick any to eat)

ive seen numbers that say .5-1 lb per row foot of asparagus ?!?! holy cow!

 

[jinman]

Here is everything I didn't know about asparagus until now.

Growing Asparagus

When I was a kid, we used to go out and gather asparagus that grew wild along fencerows. I've never cultivated it, and from the link, it seems to take a lot of planning for the best production.

 

[schmism]

yep read that one

i was worried about digging it up if i went with a mechancal weed/grass elimination (as thats my perfered way to do it) but it seems its very deaply rooted so that tilling (hoe) the grass off the top shouldnt be an issue?!?! (i know have a mantis (really an echo) tiller for this exact type of thing)

 

[LMTC]

It grows from crowns, which should be 6-10" deep...or so; the roots from the crowns will go even deeper. You should be able to till the top 2" safely. Till some fertilizer in, and allow some ferns from each crown to grow to maturity so they can produce food for the crowns. Ideally you should be able to cut from a good established crown for a week or two, then start letting some stalks mature into ferns. The ferns will grow and provide nourishment to the crowns well into fall. We mow over ours after the ferns have died, and depending on the severity of your winters you can mulch (straw or whatever) the bed, and remove the mulch in the spring.

 

[Bird]

When I was a kid at Healdton, OK, we had several small round patches, maybe 3' in diameter scattered around the farm; don't know who planted them or when since they were there when dad bought the place. All we did was try to keep the grass dug out of it. In later years, the Carter County Fairgrounds (Ardmore, OK) had a 6' chainlink fence around the fairgrounds and asparagus grew in the fence row right along with the grass. I used to go with my dad to harvest it on both sides of the fence. Then dad got permission to dig up a bunch of the roots and I helped him do that and transplant them to his garden.

And where we lived 60 miles south of Dallas until 4 years ago, one of my brothers had a place nearby and borrowed my Kubota to prepare a 4' wide by 50' long bed, as described in the link jinman posted, and he planted two rows of mail order roots or crowns. But it only produced a couple of years before he sold the place and moved.

And the only reason I don't eat a lot more asparagus is because it's so expensive. I like to just eat it raw by itself while harvesting it, it's great chopped in salads, and of course, it's great steamed, with or without cheese sauce. We used to have a next door neighbor who had a school teacher sister in Washington state who had a boyfriend who was a commercial asparagus farmer. She used to bring us unlabelled canned asparagus just as you'll find in the grocery store, but she also brought canned pickled asparagus. It's the only time I've seen it pickled, but it was very good.

 

[Egon]

Place some fresh dirt over the bed in the spring. That should cover the grass and kill it. The asparagus will grow through.

 

[schmism]

Place some fresh dirt over the bed in the spring. That should cover the grass and kill it. The asparagus will grow through.

i like that idea!

infact one site i read said that growing white asparagus.... you heaped up mulch and waited for it to grow up through the mulch, (but not all the way) then pulled the mulch back and harvested the white stems....

I can get free mulch from the city, ill see about loading some up in the pickup and covering the area i think its growing in.....

 

[N80]

Have you tried fresh asparagus? When I was a kid all mom ever got was the canned stuff. Yuck! It would literally make me gag. After I got married I was introduced to slender spears of fresh asparagus and I've been hooked ever since. So if you haven't had fresh, give it a try. Some people seem to like big thick spears, boiled and sometimes peeled (I think this is kind of European) but my advice is to get them when they are very thin and tender.

 

[ronjhall]

When I spent some time in Germany several years ago. We had Asparagus for dinner. It was the meal. Behind the restaurant was a field where it was grown. They created long row mounds. Every day they would use a knife similar to a flooring knife. To reach into the mound and cut the sprouts that had stuck their tip through the mound. This was the tenderest asparagus I have ever tasted.
Like has already been said, Asparagus grows from deep in the ground.
Here is a link to German Asparagus .

 

[Egon]

Lightly steamed asparagus drizzled with garlic flavored olive oil may be heaven!

 

[schmism]

well everyone is invited to come to the property in IL and harvest asparagus sometime in march.... sounds as if ill have quite a bit....

still looking for info on the salt thing....

perhaps im going at this wrong... what would bags of salt be used for? something to do with livestock? (this doestn seem to be the stuff you dump in the spreader and put down on the driveway if thats what your thinking)

 

[ronjhall]

Do you have a fish pond. I use about 50 lbs a year in our little 2000 gallon pond.

 

[schmism]

Do you have a fish pond. I use about 50 lbs a year in our little 2000 gallon pond.

nope no pond...

unless you count the flooded basement... (but lets not go there)

 

[Bird]

N80, the tenderness of the thin vs. thick spears, I think, has more to do with when they were harvested than anything else. We generally used a knife to cut them off just below the surface of the ground. It a spear was more than 3 or 4 inches long, we'd hold the base in one hand, bend it and slide the fingers of the other hand toward the tip. A tough spear will bend while a tender one will snap in two. The part that bent, nearest the base, was usually thrown away and the tender part that snapped off was kept to eat regardless of whether it was a thin or thick spear.

Ron, I hadn't heard, or read, that about the Germans, but I could sure do just fine with that German food.

And Egon, that sounds about right to me.

 

[MossRoad]

You may want to watch that city mulch, as you do not know what is in it. I will use city mulch on my flower beds, but not my edibles.

Anyone every try lightly steamed asparagus with Heinz 57 sauce or just plain ketchup? It aint bad!

 

[MossRoad]

perhaps im going at this wrong... what would bags of salt be used for? something to do with livestock? (this doestn seem to be the stuff you dump in the spreader and put down on the driveway if thats what your thinking)

What kind of bags of salt? Water softener, ice melter, weed killer? What's on the labels?

 

[RobertN]

Lightly steamed asparagus drizzled with garlic flavored olive oil may be heaven!

Have a deli cut you very thin slices of the ham of your choice. Lightly spread cream cheese on the ham. Using either lightly steamed aspargus, or the German white asparagus(in a jar), place a stalk of the asparagus on the ham slice. Now, roll it up, using a toothpick to hold it together. A stack of those make mighty good appetizers I have tried using proscuitto(sp?) instead of ham too.

 

[schmism]

You may want to watch that city mulch, as you do not know what is in it. I will use city mulch on my flower beds, but not my edibles.

ya the leaves they pick up and all the tree debris they collect is stock pilled then then tub ground with the leaves.

seaons for roughly a year before they start over in the fall....


as for the salt ill snap a pic of the pile of stuff i have....

 

[LMTC]

I have never done this, but---several old farmers have told me at times that they sprinkle salt or spray salt water wround their asparagus as it kills most plants but not the asparagus. Enough salt will kill anything, so I was always reluctant to use it.

I think it was Egon who posted re: steamed asparagus drizzled with garlic flavored olive oil...my, oh my. My favorite is sauteed (and sometimes I use a loose lid for a few minutes, so perhaps some steaming) in olive oil with a small amount of minced garlic.

 

[goaliedad]

My bil has some asparagus in his garden- I know he sprinkles water softner salt on the ground around his plants- I guess they like it. All I know is if it is fixed right, it is very good stuff!