CUTTING BACK ASPARAGUS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 136, 25 June 1937, Page 14

CUTTING BACK ASPARAGUS

As soou as the foliage of the asparagus is completely dead, but on no account before, it should be cut down to within an inch of the soil. Then, especially if the soil is light, a thin layer of well-decayel manure — not sufiicient to exclude air, but just enough to protect the roots from the severities of winter, and to give some help to them by the rain washing the goodness out of the manure into the ground, may be applied. To make the bed loolc neat during the winter months, a light covering of soil might be applied, obtained by lightly forking up the alleys between the beds. This soil can bo pulverised with the back of the spade and scattered over tha aurface of the bed. Beside giving a

neat appearance, this will help to keep in the value of the manure. As the work of eutting down the foliage proceeds, any plants which failed or died out should be noted and the spot marked by driving in a stake, so that when planting time comes these gaps can be made good. - There is also one other point upon which the economical grower will have his eye, and that deals with the round red berries whieh hang so plentifully from the boughs. These contain small black seeds for sowing in the spring. By growing these on for a year or two, one could put down a large new plantation at practieally no cost.