On 6/1/2014 8:25 AM, Not@home wrote:
We live in zone 5. We had a small parch of asparagus that produced
well, but we wanted more, so we planted a row of roots last year. All
came up, but the spears were thin, as one would expect from new plants.

Last winter was exceptionally cold. When I went out to the garden this
year, only two plants had produced small spears by the end of May; one
was the original patch, and one was from one of the new plants. This
morning the original parch has thrown up a second spear.

I'm thinking I'll wait a couple more weeks, then conclude that the
plants that have not produced are kaput.

How long should I wait before digging up the corpses and replanting.


I mix edibles with ornamentals; and my garden is all perennials, bulbs,
shrubs and trees. So, of course, my edibles consist of artichokes and
asparagus in addition to fruits.

For some 30 years, I had very productive asparagus planted behind some
low-growing flowers. Every spring, we would have asparagus with dinner
1-2 times a week for about 6-8 weeks.

Then we had a very rainy winter. All the well-established asparagus
plants rotted in the ground. Some, however, had dropped seeds. After a
few years, the seedling plants were beginning to mature sufficiently
that I hoped to have at least a small harvest. But once again, we had
an exceptionally wet winter; and they all rotted.

This spring, some next-generation seedlings actually put up spears worth
harvesting; but I decided to let them grow even more mature just in case
our current drought ends as so many prior California droughts ended --
with record-breaking rain storms.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary