Planting asparagus: tips for growing asparagus

Green and white asparagus are popular in spring. You can also plant these in your own garden. We give tips on creating a new asparagus plant.

Of the asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) delights gourmets worldwide. What many hobby gardeners do not know: with a little skill you can grow the delicate and expensive vegetables in your own garden. In selected online shops you can buy seeds or rhizomes from young plants. When buying asparagus plants, it is better to leave the internal savings at home, because the quality of the plants is crucial for subsequent success.

Buy seeds or young plants

Professional asparagus farmers usually use rhizome plants, a smaller proportion buy seeds and use them to grow plants in the compacted soil in the greenhouse. Buying seeds to grow in pots is cheaper, but at the same time means more effort and a year longer cultivation time. If you decide in favor of seeds, this means that you have to wait at least three years until the first harvest, then approx. four weeks to be harvested. With rhizome plants, a short harvest of approx. 10-14 days and after two years can already be approx. Harvest for 4 weeks.

You start sowing in the spring on your own windowsill. The sowing depth is about 1 cm. The asparagus seedlings are pricked out at a height of about 10 cm and placed in a slightly larger pot. The young asparagus plants can then be planted in the garden from mid to late May.

Young plants from green and pale asparagus can also be bought on the Internet. Rhizomes from annual plants are usually supplied here in spring. The quality of the rhizome is extremely important. Asparagus with rotten or rotten roots is rarely used. This also only unnecessarily delays the already long waiting time until the first harvest.

Choose the right location and soil for asparagus

Asparagus makes certain demands on the soil. In the best case, the soil is deeply rootable, deep (40-60cm deep layer of topsoil) and free of roots and stones. Asparagus plants love soils that are permeable to water and air, which warm up quickly in spring. Heavy and poorly ventilated soils in connection with a shady location often lead to rot. Waterlogging is also a knockout criterion for growing asparagus.

The nutrient content is just as important as the nature of the soil. If you plan to plant asparagus in the long term, the soil should be prepared accordingly a year before planting. In order to increase the nutrient content, well-rotted manure, compost (up to 10 liters per square meter) and humus can be piled up at the planting site and incorporated. If this is done a year before the asparagus is planted, green manure can also be carried out directly. The expert understands this to mean planting plants such as Oil radish or yellow mustard. This is mixed into the ground on the spot in autumn, rots and releases important nutrients into the soil.
If your own planning horizon is shorter and the asparagus is to be planted directly, it is best to dig a 30cm deep and equally wide trench for planting. This is filled with about 10cm of manure and compost. At the same time, 200g each of phosphorus and potash can be added.

Plant asparagus

If you have first-class asparagus rhizomes or well-established seedlings from your own cultivation, you can finally start. The rhizomes are usually planted between the beginning of April and mid-May; the seedlings are then planted after the ice saints in mid-May. The soil should already be warmed up and not too wet, this creates ideal, vigorous conditions for the young plant. In cold and wet soils, the plants remain where they are and damaged areas at the storage roots begin to rot easily. Green asparagus is placed about 15cm deep, pale asparagus up to 25cm. The individual storage roots should be carefully spread out in the shape of a fan in the bottom of the trench. Immediately after planting, cover the roots with 8-10cm of soil. As the plant grows, the trench is filled up piece by piece with soil.

You proceed in a similar way with plants you have sown yourself. These are planted in a wide trench at the depth desired later. In the direction of autumn, earth is gradually added; this gives the new shoots support and germinating weeds are spilled in the process. The planting depth has an impact on how many years a white asparagus plant can be harvested. Because over the years the roots of the plants not only grow in depth and breadth, but also upwards. The deeper the plants are set, the longer white asparagus can potentially be harvested. However, the harvest always begins later and it is also more difficult for the young plants to establish themselves on the site. As the plants grow taller over the years, the dam has to get higher and higher in order to To be able to harvest white asparagus of sufficient length and not to close the asparagus plant when pricking injured. But at some point, of course, the end of the possible will also be reached here, and the rods will be after a few Years thinner and thinner, so that with good cultivation one can expect an asparagus plant to last 8-10 years can.

About 3 asparagus plants are needed per running meter. More modern varieties require slightly higher densities. The distance between the rows for green asparagus is 1 to 1.5 m while pale asparagus needs at least 1.5 to 1.6 m (if only because of the amount of soil for the dam). The distance between the asparagus plants is about 25-33cm. In contrast to white asparagus, green asparagus can be planted staggered in double rows. Thus, one plant in the row is exactly between two plants in the other row. If you plant in double rows, the distance between the individual rows is approx. 15-30 cm, the distance between the double rows should be at least 1.5 meters for better ventilation of the plants.

Fertilize asparagus properly

Asparagus can be grown in the home garden at the same location for up to ten years. However, this presupposes good soil, well-adapted one Asparagus fertilization and a restrained harvest ahead. In the autumn of the year before planting, the soil is ideally filled with a primarily organic bio-fertilizer such as our Plantura Organic universal fertilizer mended. During the season, compost or green manure is used. In late autumn, after removing the asparagus leaves, an organic fertilizer with a long-term effect should be incorporated again. You can also do this every three years Limescale. The pH value should be between 5.8 and 6.5, depending on the type of soil.

After successful cultivation, you can look forward to a rich asparagus harvest. In our special article you will find all the information about Harvesting and storage of asparagus.