ASPARAGUS CULTURE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 32

ASPARAGUS CULTURE

To prepare an asparagus bed, a welldrained position must be selected. The surface soil should be removed to a depth of six inches, and the bed dug to a full spade depth. Fill the bed up to ground level with old stable manure; mix thoroughly with the fork, and then cover with several inches of surface soil. Two-year plants, as fresh as possible from a reliable nursery, should be placed in rows two feet apart, with 15 inches between the plants, spreading the roots well around. Just cover the roots with soil, and when the shoots appear recover with about two more inches of surface soil.

For green asparagus the shoots should be allowed to grow a few inches above the surface of the soil,

but if blanching is needed there must be a good depth of soil so that the stalks can grow to a length of about nine inches below the surface. Greening gives a peculiar and very much nicer flavour that is not to be found in blanched shoots. No cutting should be made from the bed during the first season, since a good leaf growth is required to perfect the stools to give a good crop the following year—the shoots being produced from the stored-up energy of the plant, and not from the soil. Beds should be kept clean and free from weeds, and the surface soil carefully broken occasionally or covered with a good mulch of leaves. In the autumn the tops die down and should be cleared off to prevent the seeds from falling and giving a crop of seedlings. During the winter months keep the beds well drained and sprinkle freely with salt. A little fine sulphur also keeps away insect pests or snails, which abound freely if the beds are neglected.