On Mon, 11 May 2009 17:56:15 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

Hamer Family wrote:
I planted about 25 Asparagus crowns in late March, and I only have two weedy
little sprouts coming up. So, worried that the crowns had rotted I dug a
couple up, what I found was a afew roots looking like the roots on the
crowns that I planted and a mass of white hair like roots but no crown. Any
ideas what is going on? I am in South Wales. The earth in that bed is very
humous rich, maybe they need a more sandy bed?

Your expert thoughts would be welcome.


Maybe you are being a little impatient. When I planted my 8 crowns 3
years ago I seem to remember them being a bit slow to what I expected.
One even skipped a season entirely and came up the following year!

So I'd suggest waiting a while longer.

The irony now is that a couple of years ago I collected the little
orange seeds on a couple of the plants and set those in a seed tray and
last year lots came up. A couple of days ago I finally got around to
splitting them out into separate pots and after setting around 25 strong
young plant am was left with around 30 good plants which have gone onto
the compost heap! It breaks my heart to throw away good plants but too
many is too many.

Thanks David
That's encouraging. My original plants were all male so no seed but
I'm hoping some of my new ones may be female, if they come up.

Pam in Bristol