Asparagus is a hardy perennial vegetable that can last for 20-30 years in well-planned asparagus beds. To grow it, it is best to avoid growing other plants or crops among asparagus and not replant an old bed with new ones. Choose fresh ground to avoid any build-up. Asparagus crowns are only available once a year in early spring, so it is important to order or bring them home early.
To plant asparagus, dig a trench about six inches deep and mix in a generous amount of compost. Check the soil pH, which should be close to neutral, around 6.5 to 7.5. Fertilize with blood and bone or dynamic lifter in spring, but opt for composted manure in winter.
Asparagus planting takes two to three months from planting to harvest. Choose a fertile, sunny, well-drained site with soil that holds moisture well. Late spring frosts can cause late spring frosts to affect the asparagus. Asparagus beds benefit from yearly top-dressing of compost and nitrogen application in early spring. Pull any weeds that appear and water regularly but not allow the bed to become saturated.
Asparagus needs a sheltered site with free-draining soil, where it can grow on its own in a dedicated bed. Most literature on asparagus beds claims 20 years of productivity, so you may want to buy more crowns to plant. You can till the surface of an asparagus bed while it’s dormant without ill effects.
When growing asparagus, consider companion plants and cleaning up old stems. Compost or aged manure can help keep asparagus plants moist, and a good supply of compost or organic fertilizer at planting time is essential. A bed can easily produce for 20-30 years or more, so it’s important to get it cleaned out when planting.
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Every gardener should grow asparagus! Asparagus is cold hardy, can be placed almost anywhere, and asparagus crowns live for …
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GROW AN ASPARAGUS PATCH THAT WILL FEED YOU FOR THE NEXT 20+ YEARS! Don’t make these 5 mistakes when …
4 or 5 years ago I got a couple packs of asparagus seeds in a grab bag and had no idea what to do with them so I sprinkled them on top of a 10 gallon garden bag and forgot about them. It looked like every seed germinated! When they were about a foot tall, hubby transplanted them into a flowerbed and they have grown ever since.
I am in my eighth year of harvesting asparagus. I kid you not some of the asparagus or as big as small cigars so sweet and delicious a couple years ago. I had an issue with asparagus beetles, but the cooler weather the last couple years has really helped I have already blanched and frozen for later in the season. It’s a must grow for any gardener.
This is my asparagus’ 5th or 6th year. It’s been producing those thin ones up until recently. Last year I did as you are saying here to do. Over winter the crown has gotten huge! Also about a month ago I fed it. It’s first handful of spears this year were thin but tender and delicious. Now for the first time it is producing tall fat but still tender and delicious spears. I’m so happy about this and have bought a shade cloth to help it keep from bolting when the temps start heating up. I do too “graze” the asparagus while I’m out in the garden. It is so delicious. Mmmm m. Homegrown. There is nothing like it. And it’s so good for us. I’ve noticed thyme and dill loves to companion grow with the asparagus. Also the healthier the plant becomes the less likely beetles will go after it. Thanks for bringing up asparagus. It is the best.
Research Alton Brown cooking asparagus. Fresh has a handful of nutrients but cooked it has over 150 nutrients– amazing. He educates us in such a fun way. Hope you look it up– Good Eats. Never have I seen a dog love veggies like him. Mine loved fresh green beans right of the bush but that was it. Just had to plant a new patch, 175 plants so far. The old patch was over 25 years old and just gave out. Going to try your tips on keeping it going better, Never knew the berry ferns should be removed.
I planted some asparagus in bags last spring, this year we planted in ground one was from seed just to see if I could grow it the other was a crown I bought at Lowe’s. They did great and we’ll have some in salads next year! I also planted rhubarb and strawberries. I’m trying to help my son be self sufficient.
We planted our patch probably a foot deep following the same covering process you used 20 years ago. They are still producing!! We break them off…it also helps to break them to not cut off the woody hard part. They Love rock salt! We let the tops(ferns) winter over and clean them off early early spring and they do great! Great article!! BYW my shi tzu also eats his own from the patch!!
I started cultivating asparagus in my backyard yin Puerto Rico 3 years ago. I decided to integrate my compost into the asparagus bed this year. From 5 roots purchased at Home Depot I found 3-4 beautiful crowns. Trippled the size of the asparragus bed and results are obvious after 2 weeks. Over the years I have implemented and adapted many ideas from the Jersey gardener and I have to say thet the Caribbean farmer has much to be thankful for. Keep up your excellent tutorial articles. Starting to look at your store items in detail. THANKS
great tips on asparagus. am new to growing and grew from seed last year so produced ferns only last year which I cut down in autumn. i have moved them this year from inside poly tunnel to outside which they seem happy because they have produced spears this year but will not harvest for another 2 years!
I am a rookie at growing asparagus. I began last year with two year old plants. There is so much I do not know about growing asparagus. The packages of crows told how to plant and to wait a year before harvesting. Mine have sprouted up and the grow very quickly. I have gotten some thick shoots and some thin ones. I will save this article to reference when needed. Thank you. Btw I till add the soil as you showed us to
James, thanks so much for this article! I used to live in Jersey, 20 ft above sea level. But husband and I now live at 3400 ft up in the Appalachians! Not just different elevation, completely different growing experience over all. Have some aspargus that is about 3 years old, but this was the first year it actually did more than just fern. We had about 6 spears! I did like Tuck – at them fresh while in the garden. LOL I had some questions about when to cut them down and how to start more – you answered everything for me. Really appreciate it a bunch. Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables. Praying the bed will really take off now. Keep up the good knowledge you spread. – Judith Garton
very helpful. I planted 2 asparagus crowns and followed advice to not harvest the first year. I was amazed when they grew into giant ferns. Now it’s autumn and they are turning brown. I will follow your advice and leave them until they are completely brown and dry then cut back and add a layer of straw.
Thank you!! My asparagus is about 10 years old and for about the last 2 years has produced only stringy little thin spears. Now I know why!! I did not know how much they needed mulch and renewed soil. I do have plenty of both, but thought if I put too much on, it would kill the crown if it was too deep. Now I know, because of your article, that they actually do NEED to be essentially buried!! Will amend and rectify this issue ASAP!!
Hi James. Just watched a few of your articles showing what perennials you are growing and wouldn’t grow anymore (the same I decided not to grow anymore either). So one plant I was missing was the Haskap (Honeyberry). They are really great: taste a bit like a blueberry, ripens very early (May) and grows very well as understory and it doesn’t need acidic soil like the blueberries. And: congratulation to your garden and your articles!
first season of harvest this year 🙂 Best asparagus ever, and it keeps well. I will put soil over it this fall from your tip, but not 6 inches. Using that measurement and the longevity of the plants, it seems i would have a mound several feet tall after 5 years. I also didnt know to cut down berry producing stalks while still green. I will do that this summer.
Hi James, I love your articles, I have gotten some great advice and I am trying to make a food forest like you have done. Can you make a article showing how much space you use and also what do you do with the extra produce. And do you do this full time? I love what you are doing, you are a gift to us new gardeners.
I just love Tuck!! Question: How do you keep your patch weed free? We started our 5+ years ago (it’s probably longer than I realize) but we have grass and weeds in it constantly and sometimes it gets out of hand. It’s about an 8x8ish patch and I feel it should be better than it is. It gives us what we need but what’s the best way to keep it clean? Mulch?
James thank you for the heads up!! I grew my asparagus from seed and wouldn’t have transplanted it quite deep enough if it weren’t for this article! I will be planting it along a fence in a narrow bed space that is about 15 inches wide and 25 feet long. ❤❤Tuck❤❤ is absolutely adorable eating his greens like a good boy!
Oh happy accident. I hadn’t yet pulled the straw off my beds. We had a crazy heatwave beginning of April and my thought process was shading to keep them cooler. I didn’t realize I was keeping the ground cold thus stopping them from pushing up. Now that the weather has cooled down I will be going and pulling the straw back to heat up the soil. Tuck going after those spears is like me with a bag of chips 😂
Great vid mate. I have only ever grown Asparagus one. About five years ago I got a few 1yr crowns. Did trench them and lay over a mound and all went well for a while. Didnt harvest the 2nd year and then 3rd year had a few spears that were good. Sadly the 4th year (last year) it died. Have no idea what happened or what I did wrong. I am going to plant a whole big patch of Asparagus soon and see if I can do things better. PS, love your website too mate. I have been following your content for years and love what you do. Keep it up bro 🙂
Great advice.. Thanks Unfortunately, I dropped the ball several years ago in planting asparagus. I ran out of time, and the root starts rotted before I could get them in the ground. The following year my life unfortunately got turned on its head. This year I am making an effort to get back to it, and would love to try and get some spears.
I’ve had great asparagus for years. I didn’t realize how big the roots get! When my raised bed rotted and needed to be replaced I found the roots had actually grown into the wood and I disturbed them. That caused the weakening of the plants, which invited the asparagus beetle. I read it’s important to cut the spears below ground level slightly or the dead spear part is what those beetles overwinter in.
My aunt told me her asparagus LOVE and thrive on horse manure. Hers was shaded beneath a young maple tree, and the bed looked great. I have had mine from 2012 seeds, and in pots, because I didn’t want to leave them behind, as we moved often. Now we are more settled, and I will implement these tips. I didn’t know asparagus could get down 10 feet deep. Thanks for this article, blessings on you and Tuck, and your articlegraphers. 🎉
Where did asparagus originate from? Was it a forest or a tropical or sub tropical forest- jungle? I like to let some of my plants go to seed so the continue the natural cycle process and it find it’s own growing area. Some of my plants which I let grow natural are lettuce and dill. I am hoping the asparagus will do the same.(?)🤔
I found asparagus growing along the roadside that seeds had blown out of a commercial field years ago & the fields since closed, but the asparagus keeps on going & growing & spreading & the passers by do not know what they are looking at. I dug up a bunch of them 3 years ago now & last spring we got over 100 spears. some of them are very big but still unusually tender & sweet. What a treat. I collected the little orange seeds /berries this year & I tossed them around another garden I have & they all came up & are 4inches high in just over a week. Save seed incase the roots die off you have seeds to propagate more. Just save one it will have enough to dry & store.
Thank you! I planted mine last year in raised beds (we have clay soil) – 2 starts from a local nursery – and I’m in zone 9a. The ferns did not die down. They are crazy. 😂 But one got buried under the ferns of the other so I need to figure out how to lift up the ferns. I look forward to trying some next year. The spears are already much bigger than when I first got them in.
I’ve always wanted to plant asparagus, and now I know how! I saw you demonstrate how NOT to harvest by cutting below the surface. You showed your felco printers. I bought some on your recommendation and love them! But I misplaced them and couldn’t find them till they’d been out in the rain for two days. There’s a little rust on them. Are they trash? 😩 Can they be sharpened? Do you have a article showing how? Thanks for your great articles!
Picked asparagus every morning at sunup when I was in high school, for 2 hours, then went to school. Got up at 4:30 to do so. Great tips for folks. Thank you Jim. Tuck likes them better than I ever did. Great article. We always put cow manure on the for fertilizer. Alex Karras once told Johnny Carson on national TV that asparagus made his pee smell.
Hi James. Thanks for your articles. So let’s say someone (no name mentioned,) gets impatient waiting for the ferns to get brown, because they look unruly in the garden; he cuts them down early. I understand the next years crop will be poor and it is. What should be done to rejuvenate the plants from this mishap? I put some chicken manure on them over the winter months, but there are only a few fruits here and there at this point.
It’s FINALLY warming up here in SE N.D. and the snow is FINALLY gone. I have been thinking about the wild asparagus and looking forward to another year of picking. Hoping for a good season. Some years I pick as much as 100+ lbs. I share about 98% of it with family/friends. My neighbor pickles it and OMG that is good!
Thanks for the article! Some of this I learned from my elders, however I learned a few new things. I love my fresh asparagus, I can eat them as they grow, very few make it in the house or on the grill. I guess I need to grow more plants. Question, if you let them go to seed will they start new plants??? Or is that in another article?
Great article James. I also found that if you plant (one year old crowns) asparagus in heavy fish waste you can start harvesting spears in first summer. My crowns reached over 12 inches wide in three to four months here in Tennessee. The crowns arrived from Nourse farms in spring at barley an inch around. I grow pacific purple jersey supreme and jersey knight
Hello James, Our asparagus was kept fenced in, weeded and watered but half our crowns did not grow back 3rd year. We replaced and removed a dozen crowns non growing and they felt like wet hollow plastic soda straws. What in your opinion did we do wrong? We have them in clay type ground in NJ but we put lots of good soil and manure when we tilled. Please let us know so we don’t mess up again. Thank you. Keith
Thanks so much for this article! I was talking about growing asparagus and I guess my phone was listening! This is my fourth year and I’m enjoying the spears already in NH. I didn’t know about cutting back the female ferns to avoid berry creation, but that makes sense! Thanks so much- really learned a lot. Also a Jersey girl here.
I love asparagus but I’m the only one in my family that smells the ammonia afterwards. If I have just 2-4 spears it is mild but persists for about 24 hours. If I eat a dozen or so it is so strong it burns my eyes like cutting an onion for about 12 hours and then is just mild for the next couple days.
I planted asparagus four years ago and am still learning about them. When the stalks fern out, am I supposed to remove them? I know that the female stalks should be removed before they go to seed but what about the others? I had been gone from home for several weeks and wasn’t able to tend the patch. The stalks ferned out and I cut them because I wasn’t getting any other stalks. What should I be doing? Thank you. Asparagus right out of the garden is my favorite (like Tuck!). Thank you for any help you can give.😊
I’m confused…about the forming seeds. By May my plants have grown to 4 ft and they have little green seeds formed on the branches. Should I be cutting them down now? Looks like they’re all female plants. Your info made me realize I haven’t been doing anything right! Well, I’m changing that. Thanks so much for the help.
James, thank you for your very informative articles! Last year i started gardening. After perusal your articles, I dug out a raised bed where i had seen a couple ferns pop up. (Spears were hidden by other plants.) The crown looked like a monster, about 4 feet long with several feet of nearly pencil thick roots. I located the nubs(?) Where it looked like it would grow & cut the crown into 7 sections to replant. I only harvested a one spread from the strongest pyridoxine plants last year but let them green out. Most of them are steadily producing thick spears this spring. I’ve harvested 3 each. How do i know how many i can harvest?
Asparagus is incredibly special. It’s different to our other foods as it is a fern. There are enzymes in it that speed up the death of dying cells and then the newly replicated cells are a BETTER CONDITION THAN PREVIOUS! This is very significant. There was an American studying asparagus for the treatment of cancer but he was shut down because it would ‘put too many oncologists out of work”. I don’t know the names of the people involved. However, I used an asparagus supplement twice a day which eventually got rid of a melanoma on my wrist without attending doctors.
Hi there from SouthEast England, Thanking you for going into the details of growing Asparagus, as I planted some possibly in correctly into a raised bed with filled in bottom as did not know that these can send roots down such a long way and last year which was their first year I saw nothing but this year they have appeared with the spears and now upon learning from you these will no doubt require replanting for them to have more depth, so perhaps do you have any news to me on when I should dig up and replant. I am guessing this should be alright as I had read months back of people doing this when house moving in winter time when it had become in their area full of frost and snow but need to know what time of year because they are at present time shot up and into their 2nd year. Do you know, is it impossible to grow in raised beds, perhaps it’s not possible to know being that raised beds are a rather newer way of garden growing! Thanking you in anticipation of hearing from you and/or possibly your followers whom maybe prepared to give advice. Maureen
RE: HARVESTING… I recently learned that rhubarb should be pulled, not cut, to prevent infection to the crown. Then I accidentally pulled a full spear of asparagus (green and 2inch white bit that was previously underground) and started to wonder if it is similar to harvesting rhubarb, and if it is ok to “pull harvest” each spear instead of cutting or snapping them. Any thoughts?
I truly enjoyed this clip and have subscribed. I have been wanting to grow asparagus for years and finally ordered some roots this season. I have a question – we downsized to a smaller home and don’t have acreage that we used to with the old home. Can you grow asparagus in containers and if so, do you have any tips – spacing, pot size etc? Thanks in advance!
Great info. I have some I need to plant. I had no idea they were perennials until I bought them. Bummed I have to wait a couple years! Haha. Just like Ive recently found out you can eat Hostas! Where have I been I didnt know Asparagus was a perennial and eating Hosts?! LOL They were so delicious! My yard is filled with them from the previous owner, I actually had to thin them this year.
In 2021 we tried planting asparagus from seedlings but they didn’t do so well. So we did a bunch of research and bought 1 yr old asparagus crowns last year. I thought we may have over mulched or adding the mushroom spore covered the crown too much and i know that stawberries and rhubarb don’t like that. I was worriying that that hadn’t appeared in Feb but i forgot that is when you plant them. I saw one little one and i thought the other’s had died but then a couple of days later a massive one appeared from another plant. I went out and pulled back the mulch and hunted for the crowns and all 4 have survived and i can see spears! Do i need to amend them with something like blood, fish and bone granules? If so when? As the asparagus will be 3 years next year, does that mean i can harvest it like rhurbarb? Only one plant has a pencil thick spear so far. I think what i am learning more about asparagus, is to be patient. I love learning about how these plants grew originally. I was up potting some sweetcorn, ginger and tomatoes with my kid and each plant we had different types of pots but roughly the same width. With the Sweetcorn, i explained that they have long roots (and showed them) and they like can’t get root bound as they can get stunted. We plant them in 15cm wide but tall pots. Ginger grows sideways so we planted them in 20cm pots but in V shaped pots that are half the depth and i showed them some eyes and explained how we can divide it like potatoes to grow more if we wanted to.
This is my third year James and I was really looking forward to being able to harvest my first spears. Problem is there are none comming up . I don’t know if they are just not ready yet or if I have killed them somehow. I sure hope not. I don’t think I have made any of the said mistakes. Thanks for sharing the info.
Hi. Thanks for all your good info. I have been growing asparagus for about ten years and every spring I pull up the old dried spears which have been left at about 10″ since the fall before. Am i damaging the crowns? I notice that your old spears are just chopped off at about ground level.Thanks. sheila m
I have been establishing my asparagus patch for about six years now. Until I bought and planted a few purple crowns this year (they’re not up yet, I only planted them two weeks ago, and if I have to re-plant, I’ll be sure to use your technique, I just followed the directions on the package), it’s all been started from seeds and I start a half dozen seeds every year to try to fill in the gaps in the patch so I’ve got a whole age range of plants. It’s really starting to get going now and I get a couple pounds a week for a month or two but it looks like my eldest plant is not reporting for duty this year and I’m not sure why. It was definitely a female, but it was started from seed from a mostly-ignored female plant in my mother in-law’s garden that’s still going strong. I’ve had some asparagus bugs for the last two years but I keep on top of them by soaping or smushing adults and larva and snipping off any foliage with eggs and burning it. I add a few inches a year of compost or topsoil and I use mulch in fall which I gently spread around in spring so the crowns don’t rot so I’m not sure what happened with my senior plant.
This is my 4th year for my asparagus. I do all the things you described except adding more compost on top in the early Spring. Would it be beneficial to do this in the late fall also? I do cover them with a nice thick layer of EZ straw (chopped straw that has no bad stuff) but never knew to add more compost or soil to it. Thanks for the info! I”ll have to wait I guess until next Spring because it’s been coming on like gang busters for about 3 weeks now lol.. My 2 mini doxies also love the ends I trim off for a snack!
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but i just planned about 15 crowns. Don’t know what “year” crowns they are, so was just planning on leaving the spears alone for 2 years. But i should still cut down the dried, brown ferns in the winter of the first and second years, correct? And any female ones with berries before they dry up, regardless of year, correct?
Thank you for this article James and Tuck! I planted asparagus crowns last year in two separate patches. One our gardeners weed whacked the ferns before they turned brown (during the fall cleanup). These have not grown back yet this season. Do you think the patch might be completely dead? If not, any tips what I should do to try and encourage them to grow this year? I was heartbroken when I saw what they did. My other patch is doing just fine, thank goodness.
Question, you said put 6″ of soil on top in the Spring. Did you mean Fall? Also, my 4 year old asparagust are coming in skinny this year, and some look like they are brand new asparagus (fronds on top)…what am I doing wrong? I waited until they were brown, pruned them back to about 3-6″ from the ground, covered with dried leaves to protect, and a row cover over cages. Zone 7a. Is there a fertilizer I should be applying, and when? Thank you for your help!
Your pup reminds me of mine when it comes to green beans!! She will go behind me and somehow always sniffs out a least one or 2 from each plant and she’s 7 and finally last year I got her trained to only pick the bigger beans!! Anyway, question!. This is my first year growing asparagus, 1/2 from seed / 1/2 two year old plants, and last night something ate them to the ground. I had deer fencing but it must have been something small like rabbit or squirrel that could fit through the fence. Will this hurt the plants and if so is there anything I can do now to correct the situation? (I put chicken wire around the deer fencing today so.nothing should be able to get in to eat them now), thanks
You mentioned that if you can smell a odor you have a certain Gene, then you stopped ? What’s the Gene ? I thought everyone had that . But I love asparagus raw almost as much as cooked ! We haven’t had a whole lot of success with ours, I can see a few things we might of done wrong, mostly the soil height ? And reapplying the soil ! I was told to let the female plant go to seed for more plants, plu a few other things that you say not to do 🤦♀️ We won’t be here much longer, but maybe we can fix the for the new owners ? Thank for your advice 👏
I watched Paul Gautschi a master gardener in the Movie Back to Eden talk about harvesting Asparagus. He said right the opposite of what ur saying, he says and demonstrates how to harvest Asparagus and he says and shows that you remove the fruit right from the root, he reaches right down and removes it from the crown and explains why you should have to do this for the benefit of the plant. Paul says what ur suggest is harming the plant and stops production. So Back to Eden with Paul Gautschi.. ??????
How do you recover an asparagus patch that has been overgrown with weeds. Asparagus patch is about 15 years old and still producing strong. However, its never been mulched or fertilized. The weeds are now overtaking the patch and I have no clue where to even start without killing the asparagus. The area where it grows is about 20×8
very informative article thank you! Also.. in our zone, i live in the same zone as you. the big box stores sell hardy kiwi and this type of cherry bush i forget the name. i looked through your articles i’m not seeing anything on them. have you ever tried growing them? not really finding a lot of info for growing those things in our zone.
Asparagus is one of those plants that just wants to grow, no matter what you do with them. They grow wild, often along fence lines and overhead lines, seeded from birds. And the wild are full blown plants, not some dwarf version like a lot of wild plants. They will “transplant” sometimes simply by getting chopped with a disc or moved when soil is scraped by equipment. I would run a tractor and brush hog over mine usually in June and still get them coming back up for another batch or two for the season. The only thing I really did was leave alone maybe a quarter of them, mostly the skinny stalks or the ones that got woody before I got to them.
Loved the tips on asparagus …the dog was cute for a minute but then he just became a distraction and was an interruption. At one point it came off as an indulgent parent “here’s my kid (fur baby) ….isn’t he just wonderful? Let me tell you all about this sweet boy” meanwhile he is eating all the tops off the new growth