Very thin asparagus (forum)

Brigid starts with ...
My 2 year old asparagus grows very very thin spears. Is this because we inadvertently purchase female crowns or have we not been feeding the crowns enough? We haven't harvested our asparagus since we planted the crowns 2 years ago but have let the spears go to ferns then chopped back.

Time: 13th November 2007 4:53pm

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About the Author Brigid
Monbulk, Victoria
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Don says...
Hi Brigid,
Not sure what your problem is. Do you have female plants? If so they should produce little red berries in Autumn. You can always remove the female plants in autumn (when you can identify them) and replace them with males to increase the yield of your patch.
I grew my asparagus from seed given to me buy a friend who grows asparagus commercially. His advice was that asparagus grows like a weed, which it is in some places, another reason to get rid of the female plants so that birds don't eat the berries and spread the seeds.
He advised when growing from seed not to pick for two years, to feed heavily and cut down the ferns when they have dried off, which occurs in mid to late winter for me. I have a minimum harvest size of pencil thickness. I gave my father in law some seeds and he was harvesting spears greater than pencil thickness one year after planting the seeds. If your ferns aren't growing thickly and strongly for a few months then the crowns won't store enough energy to make thick spears the next year, so I suppose it is the standard nutrition, water, drainage and sun are the keys to success.

Good luck

Time: 17th November 2007 9:26am

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About the Author Don2
Perth
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Rev says...
i have 2 beds

both get fed heavily

when they shoot in spring i pick for a few weeks from one
and allow the other to grow
once spears reduce in size let the first one leaf out

then in summer cut back the second one to get a crop of shoots

IME spear size is afunction of age, moisture and especially fertiliser
they are heavy feeders but ist a super food so money well invested

Time: 19th November 2007 12:38am

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About the Author RevNQ1
Tabulam
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