A good yield is essential, especially in professional cultivation. Here you will find tips and tricks from experts on watering, green manure and damming.
Pile up the asparagus
If you want to harvest beautiful long stalks of pale asparagus, there is actually no way around damming up. From March onwards, as soon as the floors are reasonably dry again, insulation is carried out. Here you pour loose soil with a height of 30 to 40 cm and a width of 40 cm above the plants. This earth wall is then lightly attached so that it can withstand rain showers. If you want to enjoy fresh asparagus particularly early, a sheet should be laid over the dam. This also makes harvesting a lot easier because digging for the asparagus stalks becomes a lot easier and protruding stalks do not immediately turn red and green. Another advantage of the film is that weeds cannot establish themselves without light.
contents
- Pile up the asparagus
- Water the asparagus properly
- Cut off asparagus leaves and discard
Water the asparagus properly
If the soil in the garden is very light, additional watering in the spring cannot do any harm. You need about 5 liters per square meter per week. This corresponds to about half a standard watering can. In the summer months the plants can need up to 40 liters per square meter. In general, watering should be gradually reduced in late summer, since watering should be completely stopped from September onwards.
During the growing season, green manure can be made between the rows. For this will be Oil radish and planted yellow mustard. This not only prevents the nutrients from being washed out, but also loosens the soil. In autumn, the plants are then easily incorporated into the soil, thus increasing the life of the soil and returning the nutrients absorbed during growth to the soil.
Cut off asparagus leaves and discard
From October the asparagus draws the nutrients from the foliage into the storage roots and thus prepares for winter. After the asparagus shoots have matured, the herb can be cut off just above the ground and then disposed of. The herb should not end up on your own compost, as this can be partially infected with fungal diseases. Some of the stalks protruding from the ground rot in winter and can easily be pulled out when preparing the harvest
About the guest author:
As a graduate engineer in agricultural science Felix Grebhardt responsible for sales and marketing at Südwestdeutsche Saatzucht GmbH. The company is a family-run, medium-sized plant breeding company based in Rastatt. The asparagus cultivation has a long tradition in the company and can be traced back to 1912. In addition to his job, Mr. Grebhardt is passionate about growing various types of kiwi, persimmon and figs in his garden.
Additional information: www.suedwestsaat.de/spargel
