OLD-FASHIONED COMPANION PLANTING

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Lasting Harvest

My old strawberry/asparagus bed is still producing...thirty years later!

Asparagus

Asparagus is a member of the Lily family of long-lived, storage-rooted perennials. It originated in coastal Eurasia and came to North America with early settlers. With few cultural demands other than an absolute need to be chilled well over winter, one variety or another will grow practically anywhere but in the Deep South. Indeed, it naturalizes easily; the red seed berries produced by mature female plants each fall are relished by birds, and they scatter the seeds widely in their droppings. Once you've grown your own asparagus, you'll begin noticing the distinctive fern-like greenery reaching above grasses and low weeds in fields, meadows, and along roadsides everywhere. Fronds grow three to four feet high with a fine, lacy umbrella high up on the thin, woody stalk that allows the sun to filter through. So, you can plant low growing, broad leaved annual vegetables or biennial strawberries between the asparagus rows and they will thrive.

Commercial growers propagate asparagus roots from seed, dig them when dormant in late fall of their first, second, or third year, then wash, sterilize, and store them bare-rooted over winter for sale early the following spring. Most roots sold are two-year-olds that will be ready for harvest after two more years of growth. I've been told that only the larger and more vigorous two-year-old roots are sold; smaller specimens and unsold leftovers are replanted or left in the ground to grow another year. The resulting three-year-old "jumbo roots" are not that much larger and offer no harvest advantage over two year olds, but cost more. One-year-old roots must be left unpicked for an extra year before harvest—hardly worth the dime-a-root advantage in price. In my experience (having tried all sizes as well as growing from seed), you will end up with heartier stock that produces better over the long run with vigorous two year old roots.

Here in the Northeast, boxes of dry asparagus roots arrive at our local farm co-op and some hardware stores and garden supply houses in late March or April. Most mail-order seedsmen sell them as well. Price is $4.00 to $6.50 for bundles of 10 one-year-old roots, a buck more for two-year-olds, and maybe 80¢ more for threes. When bought by mail, you can't specify arrival date, as they aren't removed from cold storage till "time for planting in your area" late March, April, or May. Most seedsmen won't mail live plants outside the continental U.S. and Canada. Plants are grown from sterilized seed in heavily fumigated land, and are certified to be free of asparagus rust and fusarium, two soil-borne diseases that seldom kill but can disfigure spears around the base, making them small, crooked, and tough, and that generally debilitate the plants. California prohibits their import altogether.

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