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ncaing is ui course, our favorite asparagus idea, and Joyce recommends picking mature plants for six to eight weeks. Snapping or cutting them off at ground level is the easiest way to harvest them. When the spears become thinner, predominantly, stop picking.
Also, thinness is not the sign of tenderness, that is all in the tip. Look for firm (not mushy), tight tips and leaf bracts when choosing asparagus. In hot weather, picking may need to be done several times a day to haiV vest the spears before the tips— open up.
Joyce also burned off her patches every March and mulched with manure and firstcut spring hay in the fall.
Both examples of asparagus growing are small-scale, intensive commercial ones. For a kitchen garden size of 40-50 plants, let’s look at my “asparagus forest”, which illustrates a Permaculture approach.
The bed is located along a hedge-row and conveniently close to an outdoor water pump. Knowing that commercially grown asparagus crowns are treated with fungicides and grown with chemicals, I grew mine from seed, the “Jersey Knight” strain, which is available from 'Iterritorial Seed.
I did dig my soil deeply — it was infested with Bermuda grass. Reclaiming ground from such a pernicious weed is not an easy task.
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