You can harvest an established asparagus bed for 6 to 8 weeks, or even longer. I
harvest mine for about 10 weeks, and it is about 25 years old. Another rule of
thumb is harvest until the spears are consistently about the size of a pencil.
Then let them all grow and get the energy to the roots, and don't cut the fronds
until late winter, until all the fronds are brown.

susan

JJ wrote:

Hi All,

I have a question about asparagus harvesting.
Say you have some mature asparagus plants (5 years in the ground)
I've been reading that you should just cut the spears as they come up
and then in late Summer stop cutting to let the plant recover.

Well how about if you let the plant send up one spear and let it leaf
or fern out and let it collect solar energy, generate sugars and feed
the rest of the plant?

Wouldn't you get better tasting spears?

Would you get fewer spears because the plant isn't as "desperate" to
get a fern out?

Jay