Friday 30 December 2011
This is an experiment in gardening. I've always wanted to grow asparagus, with very limited luck.
Summer 2011
I put the tubs of soil inside the root cellar all winter, took them out, and found that five of the Millenium varieties had survived! However, they just barely hung on for the rest of the year, and no asparagus spears came up. The weeds really got a hold of the soil in this tubs, too.
I was digging around in the raised beds in mid-May and two living asparagus roots appeared! So I babied them all summer, and put them under the insulation board with the garlic. Maybe they'll survive that. We'll see.
Summer 2010
One of my gardening catalogues mentioned the Millenium variety as the best to take cold winters. Sure, the winters they were talking about were in Ontario, but it was worth a shot. I received 24 root crowns in the spring and planted them in two places - outside in a raised bed, and in an 18-gallon plastic container. Both grew moderately well throughout the summer.
I also bought a few Mary Washington crowns, too, and divided them up the same way.
For the outside asparagus, it's just them and the environment. Folks have advised putting blue insulation board down on top of the soil before freezeup, or putting some kind of ground cover down, but that came and went, so now they're out there in the cold soil, doing their best. We'll see what happens in the spring.
The other asparagus are in the root cellar. Since the temperature in there is always above freezing, they'll certainly survive - although how they will look in the spring is another matter completely. I'll take it out of the root cellar at breakup, put it outside, and see what happens. My hope is that this is the one which works - safe from the deep chill, cold enough for the plant, and ready to go. If it works, I'll get some more of these crowns.
Previous seasons
A few years back I purchased some Jersey Giant asparagus for the raised beds. They grew great guns for the summer, and I prepared a nice cover with hay and grass clippings, The roots turned into mush the following spring.
Definitely a crop which requires a lot of work up here. It would be nice to hit on a strategy which works.