"Gary Woods" wrote in message
Sort of- they're berries that will turn red when ripe, each containing
several black seeds. Easiest to clean by crushing the ripe berries in your
fingers, then mixing with water to float off the pulp.
You can plant the seeds in flats in late winter, and put the resulting
plants in a nursery bed for a year then into the permanent bed the next
spring.
BTW, the roots shouldn't have been "dried;" you didn't say what percentage
took. In my own limited experience, home-grown plants do so much better,
it doesn't even cost any more growing time to get good producing
asparagus.
You can also buy just asparagus seed, including some hybrids promised to
throw mostly male plants, which produce better.

Thanks for your reply Gary.
The roots/crowns were on sale in the local garden centre in string bags and
were quite dry - it may be the way they are sold here. According to the
label the variety is "Lolita" - don't know if that is a common or good
variety? Of the 10 in the string bag 9 have come up, though a couple of
those look a bit weak and are a bit poor is size in relation to the others.
I will harvest all the 'seeds' when they are ripe and sew them as per your
instructions.
Is there a way to tell male / female plants apart, short of waiting to see
if they bear 'seeds'?

David.