Jinman is the one I'm following with Asparagus. I didn't think it grew in Texas. My soil is sand so I add a lot of compost. Mine has about 50% shade. I have been letting the Asparagus green/branch out to get the root base established. I thought they were dead after the drought but they came back up after a rain. After the storms last week all the stalks blew over but they are still green. The branched out stalks start to die off after about 2 months - I just remove the brown stalks and keep them weeded. Next spring we will eat them as they come up.
Just check my red potatoes, I thought they were dead but it looks like I have about a pound of potatoes on each plant - no water, no fertilizer. I just planted 8 pounds of cut up seed potatoes in the sand and thew a bale of alfalfa hay over the 98 pieces after dusting them with my wood burning stove ashes. 96 plants came up.