Earthing up asparagus

zagmund

We put down some asparagus crowns earlier this year. I gather that I won't be harvesting the spears in 2015 and it will be 2016 before I get to enjoy any of the goodness.

They went into a trench and I am gradually filling the trench in at the moment, but I'm a little confused about one thing - a couple of spears have come up already this year. Is this good or bad? Am I supposed to leave the spears exposed, or earth them up in their own little mini-mound? There's no way I could bring the whole bed up to the level of the tips as they are well above the normal ground level.

Advice welcome.

z

genuine leather

Hey Z
It is good that spears are growing. You have done everything spot on. Let it grow away now, it will be quite tall and fern like(very important to keep weed free). When it turns brown in autumn cut it just above ground level and lay 4 inches of mulch on top. In spring rake a little more than half the mulch off to open the ground to some light for the spears, give it a balanced feed. Its a long wait to harvest your first spears but worth the wait and will be productive for many years. Good job.

zagmund

I'm just revisiting the thread. They are definitely fern like. I was getting a bit worried that they had bolted, but from re-reading the post above it looks like this is normal.

z

edanto

Very interesting thread, I'll look at doing this myself next year! Would be great to hear how you get on and what you learn.