Perennial Vegetables – Asparagus
Most of us are familiar with herbs that are perennial, meaning that once we plant them they come up automatically year after year, but did you know that there are vegetables that we can just plant once and enjoy year after year? It’s true! Asparagus is one such plant.
Although asparagus can be planted from seed, it is more common to buy root crowns. These root crowns are shaped a bit like an octopus with a central crown from which a number of roots emanate. These trailing roots will be about 6-10” long when you first buy them. I bought mine from Gurneys and chose Jersey Knight Hybrid Asparagus for its prolific yields. If you buy these from Gurneys you’ll get 2 year old root crowns that are ready to produce right away. Each order consist of 10 root crowns. They’ll also arrive with a handy planting guide with complete directions. Gurney’s recommends planting the crowns and then adding 2” of soil each spring for the next 2-3 years since the crowns tend to rise a bit in the soil as they grow. I planted them in a raised bed garden and left about six inches of space between the top of the soil and the top edge of the boards used to make the raised bed. Spread the roots out from the center of the crown in a circle and leave about 6-12” between the ends of the roots from one plant to the next.
We planted the crowns in the spring of 2007 with the plan that we would let the plants grow and strengthen the first year without harvesting. This is highly recommended in order to let the green growth “feed” the roots to help them become well established. When the asparagus spears started poking up through the soil, though, I had to pick “just a few”. They were absolutely top notch, nice and tender and full of flavor. So I really recommend this variety. We planted 10 crowns and all ten grew well the first year. Maturing into 3-4 foot tall feathery green plants. To get a good harvest of asparagus, you have to watch for the spears to break through the surface. Once they do, they’ll quickly grow to about 8-10” in length. This is the time to snap them off at ground level and enjoy. If you let them grow they’ll keep right on shooting up and the little buds will turn into long feathery branches. Then it’s too late. The nice part of this is that you pick the asparagus when it is very young and this means it is one of the first harvests of the season, and the harvest lasts well into the summer months.
Always make sure that you leave at least one spear on each crown to grow out at the end of the season in order to provide fuel for the roots and next year’s harvest. Keep the asparagus patch weed free. If you feel adventurous, you may find little red berries on the mature plants at the end of the season. You can harvest these to use as seed (do not eat them!) to expand your asparagus plot. Let them dry out thoroughly, then place them in the refrigerator (not the freezer) for 2-3 months. Then plant in light potting mix. If they grow, transplant to the outdoors when they are a few inches high. Definitely let the new plants grow out for two years before attempting to harvest them. The success rate of growing asparagus from seed is not good for most home gardeners, so if they don't grow and you still want to expand, just order more crowns from Gurney's Seed & Nursery Co. by using the link below. ;-)
You can use mulch or just weed it as needed. Remember the roots are spread out below the soil surface so don’t till deeply around the plant. We used Miracle-Gro liquid fertilizer a couple times a year. The asparagus spears will come up more easily if the soil is light so I would recommend preparing the soil with a healthy portion of peat moss or other light organic material prior to the first planting. Composted material is great to add the extra 2” of soil covering in each successive year.
Asparagus can be boiled, steamed, or roasted either in an oven or on the barbecue grill. Asparagus is a high nutrient, low calorie food. A serving size of 6 ounces has only about 23 calories. Asparagus is high in Thiamin, Folacin, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, Vitamin A, and even has about 7% of your daily recommended allowance of protein, making it a great choice for vegetarians and omnivores alike.
We’ll be posting our favorite asparagus recipes here in the future, meanwhile just brush lightly with olive oil and roast on the grill until thoroughly heated and serve.
Update:
Our first asparagus harvest in 2008 was on May 8th. That's pretty early to be picking vegetables in New Hampshire. Asparagus is truly one of the earliest harvesting vegetables that you can grow.
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