I had a search through the archives but couldn't find anything on
this one.

I'm thinking of getting asparagus in the spring. Got an area set aside
- about 2 -3m square - so I need to know the plant and row spacings to
know the number of crowns to order, and that's where the problem
comes.

My trusty Mr Hellyer says rows at 4 ft and plants at 1 ft (he's old so
he's allowed to use imperial), whereas I've just looked at the RHS
website and they say 30 to 45cm for the plants and 45cm (18") for the
rows with the plants staggered. This row spacing is significantly
different such that I can get in many more plants with the RHS method.
This is obviously desirable but is such a close spacing going to be as
productive ?

Has anyone recently made up an asparagus bed and what spacings did you
use ?

Rob

In article ,
Rob G writes:
|
| My trusty Mr Hellyer says rows at 4 ft and plants at 1 ft (he's old so
| he's allowed to use imperial), whereas I've just looked at the RHS
| website and they say 30 to 45cm for the plants and 45cm (18") for the
| rows with the plants staggered. This row spacing is significantly
| different such that I can get in many more plants with the RHS method.
| This is obviously desirable but is such a close spacing going to be as
| productive ?

Yes. The 4' is for access. I would use 18"x18" if enough space,
and 1'x1' if not.

I am old enough that I remember when imperial measurements weren't
based on metric ones - and that isn't as old as you might think :-)
You did know that the inch isn't what it used to be, didn't you?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 1 Dec, 21:20, Rob G wrote:

This is obviously desirable but is such a close spacing going to be as
productive ?

I don't see why not. My old dad used to grow two rows of what it
amused him to call "sparrowgrass", with the plants 9 inches to a foot
apart. He used to plant things in dead straight rows, which may
merely reflect his spell in the forces during WW2. Straight lines
were everything. He had a "barrow-way" between the plants, a row of
planks. In the years it got bushy he would clip the tops, having once
been told that plants should never touch each other. I have no idea
why.

I've never grown it, my garden is all wrong for it in so many ways.

In article ,
writes:
|
| I've never grown it, my garden is all wrong for it in so many ways.

I hunt it. Until this recent spell of wet years, my garden was almost
ideal for it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.