A couple of Questions

Hi everyone,

My name is Elaine and I am a new member (attended the last meeting). First Question is

about Asparagus. Does it grow well here? I want to plant some this spring, some books that

I have read suggest starting from seed (in the ground) and then removing all of the female plants. Other books I have read say to start with 1-2 year old transplant starts. What do you suggest and want types have you found successful to this region?

Second question should I prune all of my fruit trees now or wait until mid to late Feb., not sure with the warm weather that we have been having.

I am so happy that I have found this group. Any help with these questions would be greatly

appreciated.

Thanks,

Elaine

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Permalink Reply by Larry Fisher on January 28, 2011 at 4:50pm

I’m not an expert on Asparagus here in the NW, but here is my experience. I do remember from when I did my research for growing asparagus here that much of the advice was that Asparagus has to be in a well drained bed in the NW because we get so much rain. I have a well drained soil so I didn’t worry much about that.

It depends on how soon you want to eat Asparagus on what you start with. I started mine from seed and from what I read at the time I didn’t expect to harvest my first Asparagus for 3 seasons. That is what it took from seed.

The first year (1st season) I started the seed in a place in the garden I could leave them until the following spring. I marked the plants so I could find them, then I moved the best of the small starts over to their permanent bed the next spring after starting them (2nd season). I let them grow and get established that year. The following spring (3rd season) I harvested very very sparingly. I just couldn’t wait to try them. Maybe 1 or 2 spears per hill just because I wanted them to get a good start I figured it was worth the wait. We have had plenty of Asparagus ever sense (the established bed is maybe 6 years old). They were worth the wait. Like most things what they sell in stores not matter how fresh it is can’t hold a candle to what you can grow.

If you want them quicker you can buy the crowns. I think I remember that you should give them a year to get established before you harvest from them. But you might want to double check that. If you are in a hurry and want to spend the money you’ll get them a lot quicker buying the crowns. I was happy with the seed plants. If you can wait for the first harvest.

I’ve been happy with ours. I believe I got Jersey Night seed. It is suppose to be predominately male.

Hope this is a help and that someone else would answer as well I’d like to learn more myself.

I know little about fruit trees but I think now would be fine for pruning most fruit trees. Larry already did our apple trees. It might depend on the tree though. Hope you get better help than this about pruning.

Ruthann