Some info and a question:

Info: I have some asparagus seed (UC157) that has been in my fridge
for 10 years old. Put it on paper towel kept damp 3 weeks ago and have
more than 50% sprouted with more looking probable. Wow!

Question: I also have some mature plants fron the same original batch
of seed, that I want to divide & move at the end of the season. Any
advice on this, and on how soon I can reasonably harvest from the
relocated plants, would be welcome.

Thanks,
Alexander Miller.

wrote:

Info: I have some asparagus seed ........ Any
advice on this, and on how soon I can reasonably harvest from the
relocated plants, would be welcome.

If you are over 50 or like to eat asparagus, I would just eat the
sprouts and buy serious rhizomes.

If you have runty little shoots to plant, you might save a year or two.

We have done both and it was a waste of time.

When we moved out to the country, we bought the biggest, most expensive
rhizomes we could find and ate a few nice big stalks the first year.
After that it was more than we could eat ever since.

I just took some pics of our asparagus patch for a future Photo of the
Week. We have been harvesting for about a week now (Northern Illinois)
and stop on June 1 to let it build up for next year.

This is without a doubt the crown jewel of our garden. We pig out on
the stuff and pickle what we can't eat. It is a waste of good asparagus
to freeze it. We have omelets for breakfast and roast it for dinner and
tonite it was asparagus cheese crepes.

Can't wait for breakfast,

js

--
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: http://schmidling.com/pow.htm
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Fiber,Gems, Sausage,Silver http://schmidling.com

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:28:21 -0600, Jack Schmidling
wrote:

|If you are over 50 or like to eat asparagus, I would just eat the
|sprouts and buy serious rhizomes.


Haha - you must be expecting a short life. I'm 70. Im very happy with
the plants I've raised from seed, and hope to enjoy raising more. To
each his/her own, I guess.


| It is a waste of good asparagus to freeze it.

We consider it a waste to do anything other than eat it raw. Can't
imagine what it would be like after freezing then thawing. Yuk. But to
each his/her own.

So what do you know about dividing and/or moving mature plants?

wrote:

Haha - you must be expecting a short life. I'm 70. Im very happy with
the plants I've raised from seed, and hope to enjoy raising more. To
each his/her own, I guess.

Right. I raised ferns from spores and it was years before they were big
enough even to put out.

How long did it take from seed say.... 3/4" shoots?

We consider it a waste to do anything other than eat it raw.

I agree but can't convince my wife of that but she came up with the
method of roasting in butter in the toaster oven which is a mighty fine
alternative.

So what do you know about dividing and/or moving mature plants?

Absolutely nothing other than, don't mess with a good thing.

Ours is not spreading very much but jest seems to get denser each year.

js

--
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: http://schmidling.com/pow.htm
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Fiber,Gems, Sausage,Silver http://schmidling.com

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:44:28 -0600, Jack Schmidling
wrote:

|Right. I raised ferns from spores and it was years before they
were big
|enough even to put out.

Spores? I've used roots (rhizomes?) & seeds but I don't know beans
about spores.

|How long did it take from seed say.... 3/4" shoots?

That's 3 to 4 inch, not three quarters, haha? A year I think but of
course you don't harvest them for at least a couple of years. If you
plant seed you'll be just a year behind where you would be if you
planted one-year-old roots - duh or two years behind two-year-olds
which is what I think most nurseries sell.

|Ours is not spreading very much but jest seems to get denser each
year.

I do too; AND I'm spreading quite a bit.

In article ,
Jack Schmidling wrote:

wrote:

Info: I have some asparagus seed ........ Any
advice on this, and on how soon I can reasonably harvest from the
relocated plants, would be welcome.

If you are over 50 or like to eat asparagus, I would just eat the
sprouts and buy serious rhizomes.

If you have runty little shoots to plant, you might save a year or two.

We have done both and it was a waste of time.

When we moved out to the country, we bought the biggest, most expensive
rhizomes we could find and ate a few nice big stalks the first year.
After that it was more than we could eat ever since.

I just took some pics of our asparagus patch for a future Photo of the
Week. We have been harvesting for about a week now (Northern Illinois)
and stop on June 1 to let it build up for next year.

This is without a doubt the crown jewel of our garden. We pig out on
the stuff and pickle what we can't eat. It is a waste of good asparagus
to freeze it. We have omelets for breakfast and roast it for dinner and
tonite it was asparagus cheese crepes.

Can't wait for breakfast,

js

Could you be just a tad less conspicuous in front of the drooling masses?
- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:39:37 -0700, William Rose
wrote:

In article ,
Jack Schmidling wrote:

wrote:

[...]

- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

Hey, Bill, put me out of my misery.

I tried to look up "cloribus" in my battered old
Latin dictionary, but no luck, and no Latinist, I.
I assume it's a declined form? Of what?

Por favor?

Persephone

In article , Persephone
wrote:

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:39:37 -0700, William Rose
wrote:

In article ,
Jack Schmidling wrote:

wrote:

[...]

- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

Hey, Bill, put me out of my misery.

I tried to look up "cloribus" in my battered old
Latin dictionary, but no luck, and no Latinist, I.
I assume it's a declined form? Of what?

Por favor?

Persephone

O Gott, o Gott,
As promised, a new mistake. Coloribus gustibus non disputatum ( Of
colors and taste, you can't dispute). People like what they like and it
isn't open to logical debate.

I got tired of typing it, so I just cut and paste it now. Of course it
just had to have a typo in it. Well, hopefully, that is my humility
lesson for the day and it is out of the way now.

Thanks for the catch.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

In article
,
William Rose wrote:

In article , Persephone
wrote:

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:39:37 -0700, William Rose
wrote:

In article ,
Jack Schmidling wrote:

wrote:

[...]

- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

Hey, Bill, put me out of my misery.

I tried to look up "cloribus" in my battered old
Latin dictionary, but no luck, and no Latinist, I.
I assume it's a declined form? Of what?

Por favor?

Persephone

O Gott, o Gott,
As promised, a new mistake. Coloribus gustibus non disputatum ( Of
colors and taste, you can't dispute). People like what they like and it
isn't open to logical debate.

I got tired of typing it, so I just cut and paste it now. Of course it
just had to have a typo in it. Well, hopefully, that is my humility
lesson for the day and it is out of the way now.

Thanks for the catch.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

Latin words free.

http://users.erols.com/whitaker/words.htm

Download a free Latin-English-Latin dictionary program for your PC or
MAC.

This Latin dictionary program, (WORDS for the PC - DOS, Windows
95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP, OS/2, LINUX - and Mac OS X - console version),
takes keyboard input or a file of Latin text lines and provides an
analysis/morphology (declension, conjugation, case, tense, etc.) of each
word individually, the dictionary form, and the translation (meaning).

Have Fun

Bill

--

S Jersey USA Zone 5 Shade
http://www.ocutech.com/ High tech Vison aid
This article is posted under fair use rules in accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and is strictly for the educational
and informative purposes. This material is distributed without profit.

De rebus non disputanda (or words to that effect):

What has been started here?
No good will come of this.
When I referred to this as a gardening FORUM, I didn't expect .......

Caesar's Ghost

De rebus non disputanda (or words to that effect):

What has been started here?
No good will come of this.
When I referred to this as a gardening FORUM, I didn't expect .......

Caesar's Ghost

(Sorry, this is double posted.)

On 4/25/07 12:28 AM, in article , "Jack
Schmidling" wrote:

wrote:

Info: I have some asparagus seed ........ Any
advice on this, and on how soon I can reasonably harvest from the
relocated plants, would be welcome.

If you are over 50 or like to eat asparagus, I would just eat the
sprouts and buy serious rhizomes.

If you have runty little shoots to plant, you might save a year or two.

We have done both and it was a waste of time.

When we moved out to the country, we bought the biggest, most expensive
rhizomes we could find and ate a few nice big stalks the first year.
After that it was more than we could eat ever since.

I just took some pics of our asparagus patch for a future Photo of the
Week. We have been harvesting for about a week now (Northern Illinois)
and stop on June 1 to let it build up for next year.

This is without a doubt the crown jewel of our garden. We pig out on
the stuff and pickle what we can't eat. It is a waste of good asparagus
to freeze it. We have omelets for breakfast and roast it for dinner and
tonite it was asparagus cheese crepes.

Can't wait for breakfast,

js
I'm headed to your house to eat!

wrote:
Some info and a question:

Info: I have some asparagus seed (UC157) that has been in my fridge
for 10 years old. Put it on paper towel kept damp 3 weeks ago and have
more than 50% sprouted with more looking probable. Wow!

Question: I also have some mature plants fron the same original batch
of seed, that I want to divide & move at the end of the season. Any
advice on this, and on how soon I can reasonably harvest from the
relocated plants, would be welcome.

Thanks,
Alexander Miller.

I had an asparagus bed for about 30 years. The heavy rains in the
winter of 2004-2005 caused the plants to rot. However, they dropped
seeds. We picked our first crop from the seedlings this year.

If you divide a clump, you should treat both the relocated plants and
those kept in the original location as if they were freshly planted from
bare-root crowns. If your winters are severe, wait until spring;
otherwise, divide in the fall or winter. Plant them in holes or
trenches with the crowns about 6-8 inches below normal ground level.
Cover the crowns with about 2 inches of soil, leaving the remaining soil
mounded next to the planting hole with the hole unfilled. When the
shoots appear in the spring, slowly add the mounded soil back into the
hole without covering the growing tips.

Do not harvest that first year. In following years, harvest until the
new shoots become thin. In the second year, you might harvest 4-6
weeks. After then, the harvest period might be 8-10 weeks.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:17:32 -0700, "David E. Ross"
wrote:


|I had an asparagus bed for about 30 years. The heavy rains in the
|winter of 2004-2005 caused the plants to rot. However, they
dropped
|seeds. We picked our first crop from the seedlings this year.


They self-seeded? Nifty!

Thanks for the info on dividing & re-planting the roots. What can you
tell me about the actual technique of dividing: Where & how to cut,
what size divisions etc. Or will it be obvious when I dig them up?

I'm on Vancouver Island - zone 7 trending towards 8.

Alexander Miller.

wrote:
On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:17:32 -0700, "David E. Ross"
wrote:


|I had an asparagus bed for about 30 years. The heavy rains in the
|winter of 2004-2005 caused the plants to rot. However, they
dropped
|seeds. We picked our first crop from the seedlings this year.


They self-seeded? Nifty!

Thanks for the info on dividing & re-planting the roots. What can you
tell me about the actual technique of dividing: Where & how to cut,
what size divisions etc. Or will it be obvious when I dig them up?

I'm on Vancouver Island - zone 7 trending towards 8.

Alexander Miller.

You have to dig deep to get the crown. It will be a mass of shoots and
roots. You should be able to pull it apart after you rinse the soil
away. If you divide in the early spring, you don't need to keep a lot
of roots; just be sure to trim away any broken roots. (It's almost like
dividing bearded iris, except iris grows at the soil surface.)

Actually, asparagus don't need to be divided. However, your original
message indicated that you want to have some growing where none is
growing now. Given the heaviness of my own soil and the depth to which
I would have to dig, I would prefer to go to a local nursery and buy a
package or two of bare-root plants instead of dividing. They are not
very expensive.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/