Planting an Asparagus Bed

Asparagus is one of those vegetables which just ooze sheer quality and in their season – which is late spring until mid-June – simply can’t be bettered for eating quality. A plateful of cooked spears spread with a little butter is one of my highlights of the year!

Unfortunately a view seems to prevail that asparagus is hard to grow, plants takes up too much space and they take several years before coming into useful cropping and this naturally puts off many would be growers. All of this was true years ago but modern varieties are well worth trying out. This is largely because there has been a considerable interest in growing asparagus at home and as a result the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) through its Vegetable Trials recently identified a number of varieties which were awarded the prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM). If you would like to read a report of this asparagus trial it is in The Garden magazine (April 2013) which is produced by the RHS.

Always ensure that you buy good quality one year old asparagus crowns – varieties are recommended later – from a reliable source such as Pomona Fruits and do not buy cheap plants from unknown sources or use plants from friends or acquaintances. For the best of results it is essential that you have disease free, strong growing crowns. One year old crowns are perfect for planting – avoid older crowns as they are less likely to settle down well. Traditionally asparagus crowns are planted in April to take advantage of a warming soil and trials have proven this to be a sensible way of cultivation.

One year old ‘grade A’ asparagus crowns

Asparagus plants will be in the ground for a long time so it is important to identify a part of your garden, vegetable plot or allotment where they can be grown and not disturbed. Incidentally my grandfather’s generation often grew asparagus plants in flower borders as the “ferns” – i.e. the leafy part of the plant – can be very decorative but that was in the days when large gardens were the norm.

Asparagus will not tolerate disturbance and may well die if transplanted to a new location. You are going to need at least 12-18 plants if you want a reasonable amount of spears during the relatively short asparagus season which means that you are looking at a space of 3 metres long by 2 metres wide (to accommodate 3 rows of 6 plants) but this is no different to the size of a good runner bean trench. Asparagus is best grown in a sunny location as the sun in May and June should be warm and the emerging spears thrive in warmth. It is best to avoid locations where frost lingers as the emerging spears can be damaged by an interaction of the sun on frost.

As with any long term planting you need to prepare your site well. Remove all weeds at the beginning and then take out a trench one spade in depth. Thoroughly fork over the bottom of the trench and include some well-rotted compost. Add back some soil and then plant your crowns 450mm apart approximately 150mm deep ensuring that the roots are well spread out. Unless the weather is very wet give the planting area a good soaking on completion of planting. Ensure that the whole area is kept weed free and watered in times of drought. Do not cut any spears if they emerge in this planting season. In the second year after planting you may cut a few spears providing the plants are growing well. My advice, however, is not to cut too many spears for the first couple of years and this will enable the plants to become really well established. However, with a good number of plants you should still have a reasonable harvest.

As I noted at the beginning a number of new asparagus varieties have been awarded AGM’s and I suggest that you look toward these for planting as well as other outstanding varieties. Four good varieties which I recommend are:

Burgundine: A purple male dominant F1 hybrid which outyields many of the green varieties. Burgundine is remarkably sweet and the low fibre content means the spears are especially tender even when eaten raw, with hardly no waste at the base. Excellent gently steamed but also lovely in salads.

Gijnlim: Popular with commercial growers, this male dominant F1 hybrid variety produces heavy crops very early in the season. Gijnlim does well on sandy and clay soils and is disease resistant. Its green spears of medium thickness have good flavour.

Guelph Millennium: This is a very good choice for the UK climate as it adapts exceptionally well to cooler conditions. This male dominant F1 hybrid variety performs well in a range of soils, producing heavier crops than many other varieties.

Pacific Challenger: This variety is resistant to Phytophora and Fusarium crown and root rot. An F1 hybrid, Pacific Challenger is very well suited to cooler climates and does well in wet soil. It produces heavy crops of slender green spears with tight tips and excellent flavour.

Gijnlim is a heavy cropping Dutch variety.

If you have the space I thoroughly recommend that you try growing asparagus. In my opinion it is well worth the room that you devote to it and those first couple of years without taking a crop will be very heavily outweighed by many years of cutting wonderful crops of delicious and succulent spears!

Gerry Edwards
1st April 2013

Gerry is an experienced amateur fruit grower who is Chairman of the RHS Fruit Group, a member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Fruit, Vegetable and Herb Committee and also their Fruit Trials Panel. Gerry judges fruit nationally for the Royal Horticultural Society and is also a qualified National Vegetable Society judge.