Perennials
Asparagus
Crowns in Apr, permanent bed. No harvest yr 1, light yr 2, full yr 3+.
- Outside
- Plant crowns in Apr, permanent bed
- Where
- In ground, or deep raised bed
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Deep soak first two summers; then mostly rain
- Harvest
- Spears Apr to Jun
Care
- Water
- Keep the bed evenly damp through the first two summers while the crown fills in, soaking at the base until the top few inches are wet. Once settled it draws deep and lives mostly on rain, wanting a long soak only through a dry fern season or a real drought.
- Sow
- Set year-old dormant crowns in April, 15 to 18 inches apart in a trench about 6 inches deep. Spread the roots over a low mound, cover with 2 inches of soil, and backfill the rest as the ferns rise through summer.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost in the trench bottom at planting sets the crowns up. It feeds hard over its long life, but only after the cutting window closes, never as spears push up: a light organic nitrogen side-dress the first summer, then compost or aged manure topdressed once the ferns take over. Skip spring manure.
- Ready
- No cutting at all the first year, only a light pull in the second, then the first real harvest in year three. From there, snap spears at ground level once they stand 6 to 8 inches, checking daily through the spring window.
- Trouble
- Asparagus beetle chewing the ferns: cut every spear during harvest and clear all dead ferns in fall, where the beetles overwinter. Weeds crowding a young bed: stay ruthless, since the crowns compete poorly for years. Rust or crown rot: plant male hybrids and never where asparagus grew before.
In a bag?
- No
- A crown that crops for fifteen to twenty years cannot winter in a fabric bag: the roots freeze through in a Beacon cold snap, and the trench depth it wants is a bed's, not a bag's. Give it permanent ground.
Asparagus is the twenty-year commitment, crowns planted once in April and spears cut every spring from year three on. Six weeks of April-to-June picking pays for eleven months of leaving it alone.
Growing
Plant crowns in April in a permanent, weed-free bed with real depth; this is a decades-long tenancy, so fix the soil before, not after. Cut nothing the first year, take a light two weeks the second, and harvest in full from year three, snapping spears at soil level from April into June. When spear diameter drops to pencil size, stop cutting and let the ferns rise; from July through October the ferns feed the crowns for next spring, so they stand until fully brown. Cut the dead ferns down in late fall and top-dress the bed with compost. All it asks in between is sun, drainage, and weeding. Water it like any new planting for its first two summers; established beds run on rain except in real drought.
Varieties
Millennium has become the Northeast planting of choice: all-male, cold-hardy, productive for decades. Purple Passion adds sweeter spears worth eating raw.
Pests
The common asparagus beetle overwinters in old fern debris and chews spring spears; sanitation, meaning last year's ferns actually removed, is half the control. Finger patrols do the rest, though the beetles drop the moment they sense a shadow. The gray, slow larvae wipe off the summer ferns easily.
In the kitchen
Steamed or seared within the hour, because asparagus loses sweetness off the stalk faster than nearly anything. The skinny late spears go raw, shaved, with lemon.