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Botanical Name
Asparagus officinalis
Grown as
Toxicity
Sun Exposure
Water Needs
Height
Spread
Soil pH
Bloom Time
Flower Color
Special Features
Resilience
Plant Type
Planting
When to Plant Asparagus
- Asparagus is usually grown from 1-year-old plants called “crowns,” planted about 2 to 4 weeks before your last spring frost date. Many gardeners plant them at about the same time as potatoes.
- We do not recommend growing from seed; it takes about three years to mature enough to harvest. If you plant crowns, you can shorten the wait time by a year and eliminate one year of tedious weeding. However, if you’re truly eager to experiment and have a lot of patience and time, our colleague Robin wrote about planting asparagus by seed.
Where to Plant Asparagus
Given that asparagus is a perennial plant that comes back year after year in the same spot, it’s important to select a proper planting site where it will thrive.
- Choose a site that gets full sun (6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight).
- Place the asparagus bed toward the edge of your garden, where it will not be disturbed by the activity of planting and replanting in other areas.
- Ensure the bed will drain well and not pool with water. Asparagus does not like to have its roots get too wet. If you do not have a site with good drainage available, consider growing asparagus in raised beds instead. Learn how to make a raised garden bed here.
- Asparagus thrives in neutral to slightly acidic soil (pH of about 6.5).
- Eliminate all weeds from the planting site, digging it over and working in a 2- to 4-inch layer of compost, aged manure, or soil mix. (Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.)
- The soil should be loosened to 12 to 15 inches in depth to allow the asparagus crowns to root properly and not be disrupted by rocks or other obstacles.
How to Plant Asparagus
- Plant crowns deeply to protect them from the cultivation needed for annual weed control.
- Dig a trench about 12 to 18 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches deep. If digging more than one trench, space the trenches at least 3 feet apart.
- Soak the crowns briefly in lukewarm water before planting.
- Make a 2-inch-high ridge of soil along the center of the trench. Place the asparagus crowns on top of the mound, spreading out their roots evenly.
- Space asparagus crowns 12 to 18 inches apart (measured from root tip to root tip) within the trench.
Once you get to this point, you can follow one of two planting methods: the traditional “little-by-little” method or the easier “all-at-once” method.
“Little-by-Little” Method:
Once the trenches are dug and the crowns are set out:
- Cover the crowns with compost and topsoil, burying the crowns 2 inches deep. Water in.
- As the season progresses and spears grow to be 2 to 3 inches tall, add 2 more inches of soil to the trench, being careful not to bury the spears completely.
- Once the spears again grow through the layer of soil, add an additional 2-inch layer of soil. Repeat this process until the trench has been filled to ground level. Depending on how deep you dug your trench, you may need to add soil 1 to 2 more times throughout the season.
- After you’ve filled the trench completely, mound the soil slightly to prevent water from pooling around the emerging spears.
“All-at-Once” Method:
- Some gardeners simply fill in the trench with soil and compost all at once. While it’s thought that the traditional method results in stronger plants overall, gardeners don’t typically have any issues resulting from the “all-at-once” method. As long as the soil is fairly loose, the spears won’t have a problem pushing through to the surface.
Learn how to plant and grow an asparagus bed in our video:
Harvesting
- Skip the harvest in the first year and the second year, if possible. Ideally, wait three growing seasons before harvesting in order to allow the crowns to become fully established.
- If you have young plants, the season may last 2 to 3 weeks. However, established plants produce longer—up to 8 weeks.
- Check your plant every other day for harvest-ready spears. Spears grow quickly and may become too woody before you know it! Once an asparagus spear starts to open and has foliage, it’s too tough for eating.
- Harvest spears when they reach 8 to 10 inches in height and between 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick. (Bear in mind that younger, thinner spears will be more tender, so harvest according to your own taste.)
- To harvest asparagus, simply cut the spears with a sharp knife or scissors at ground level.
- Stop harvesting spears when the diameter of the spears decreases to the size of a pencil.
- After harvest, fertilize your asparagus patch in the early summer. You can top-dress with a balanced organic fertilizer or scatter another inch of rich, weed-free compost over the decomposing mulch.
- Do NOT cut down the remaining ferns in summer or you will ruin your asparagus bed. Allow the ferns to grow and mature; this replenishes the nutrients for next year’s spear production. Always leave at least two or three spears on the plant through the growing season.
- Only cut back asparagus ferns AFTER the foliage has died back and turned brown or yellow. This is usually in early winter after several hard freezes. Cut the ferns back to the ground.
- Fertilize the bed with a 1-inch layer of rich, weed-free compost or manure topped with 3 inches of straw, rotted sawdust, or another weed-free mulch. Clean spears will push up through the mulch in spring.
How to Store Asparagus
- Plunge just-cut spears into cold water immediately to preserve their sugar content.
- Asparagus does not keep for very long after it’s picked, so be sure to eat it within 2 or 3 days from harvest.
- To store, bundle the spears together, wrap the stem ends of the spears in a moist paper towel, and place the bundle in a plastic bag. Store in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator.
- If you have enough space in your fridge, you can also store asparagus by placing the spears in a cup of water. Keep about an inch of clean water in the cup.
Types
Asparagus plants are either male or female. Female plants produce berries; male plants do not expend energy on berries, so they can be up to three times more productive than female plants. For this reason, growing male asparagus plants is often preferred.
- Gardeners in Zones 4 to 6 have a wider selection of varieties, including ‘Jersey Giant’, ‘Jersey King’, and ‘Jersey Knight’. Older varieties ‘Mary Washington’ and ‘Martha Washington’ may produce female plants, which are not as productive as the males.
- In colder climates, ‘Guelph Millennium’ and other varieties that emerge late often escape damage from spring freezes.
- In warmer climates, early and heat-tolerant varieties such as ‘Apollo’ and ‘UC-157’ produce well before the weather turns hot.
White asparagus is not a variety but simply asparagus grown in the absence of sunlight to prevent chlorophyll from developing. White asparagus is slightly sweeter but has less fiber than green asparagus.
Purple asparagus is bred to be purple in color but turns green when it is cooked. Purple varieties tend to have thicker spears, but fewer of them. ‘Purple Passion’ is tasty but is not an all-male variety.
Comments
What months are best suited to harvest in ?
It depends on where you live. In general, asparagus is harvested from late February to June, with April being the prime month.
I planted 3 yr bulbs in fall 2012, was told I could harvest this summer. I have lots of plants, some look ready to eat, the rest are beautiful ferns. I was told I could harvest this year but now all I see on the internet is to cut down and wait till at least next year. I'd like some advice on what to do. Trim,cut down, harvest the ones that look perfectly ready to eat? Thanks!
Even though these are 3-year-old crowns instead of 1- or 2-year-olds, it's best to not harvest the first year after planting. The second year, go lightly, and the third, the plants should be established enough to handle a regular harvest. According to some gardeners, 3-year-old crowns can sometimes can be a little more fussy in adjusting to their new home, compared to 1- and 2-year-olds, so it's best to wait in case.
If you are really set on a harvest this year, and your plants look vigorous, with lots of healthy shoots on each crown, and a healthy green color to the ferns, you might be OK in harvesting extremely lightly for about 2 weeks--leave several shoots on each crown for the ferns to grow and provide food for the plant to help it to become established. It would be better, though, to not harvest at all this year.
Let the ferns brown and die back before cutting them down. These allow the plant to make food and gain in vigor.
Thank you so much! I feel so much better about my asparagus "forest" now! They are very green and lush but I will wait till next year; I am sure they will be even more ready then!
Does a field have to be burned before asparagus can be planted? and do farmers have to wait 7 years before planting the seeds?
If you're creating space for an asparagus bed, you just want to make sure it's weed- and grass-free as asparagus can not compete with weeds. You can either treat the area with an herbicide that's OK for food crops or/and you could cover the area with black plastic during the summer before planting time.
You don't have to burn a field. However, some gardeners like to burn the bed every spring to cut back on weeds and insects.
I just planted this year they are just now coming up fern like. Now what do I do next, I'd appreicate anyones help this is all new to me.
Do not harvest the asparagus during the planting year. Wait until next year. Do not cut down the fern growth at the end of the growing season. Wait until the spring. Then put down mulch and keep out weeds. Make sure you test your soil; amend with lime if the pH is below 6.0 to 6.5. When harvest season comes (watch closely!), pick the spears daily before they start to put on their foliage.
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In the first year, there's nothing special you need to do. Let it get established. The ferns can trap snow and provide moisture. In the spring, you can remove old fern growth and wait for the new spears to emerge.