Asparagus Novice - Help !

[mankymummy]

Hi, I have two pots of asparagus, each with five sort of needle thin shoot thingys coming up.

What do I do with them? I have a bed prepared with gritty soil but not sure what actually happens with the foliage once I've potted them out.

Do i just leave it this year to die off or whatever it does and then the asparagus will appear as if by magic nice and thick and juicy next year?

Will it be frost hardy?

Any advice gratefully received...!

bump

how old is asparagus? I think you are not supposed to pick the asparagus for the first two years. In the third year, you can pick a maximum of ten spears from each plant than thereafter you can pick as much as you like but leave a few spears at the end of the season to grow into the fernlike fronds as this will feed the roots for the next year's crop.

Make sure you stay on top of any weeding that needs to be done in your asparagus bed and dig in lots of well rotted manure in the bed that you have prepared.

In answer to your question about what happend to the spears if you don't pick them - they grow into rather pretty fronds about 1m tall which make the food to send to the roots to that you get better crop next year. In the autumn, you can cut these fronds down to about 10cm.

Hope that helps.

Sis is absolutely right, you need to let it establish. Some cultivars can be harvested lightly in the second year with others you need to wait until the third year. If you pick before it is established you will weaken and eventually kill the plants. The foliage is very pretty anyway and it's all worth the wait.

Cut the foliage down when it turns brown in the autumn then give the bed a good mulch.

here is what the RHS say you should do

thats brilliant, thanks very much for that. i think on the label it says to pick lightly in the second year but i didnt know whether the foliage was evergreen or if i needed to cut them down or not.