Growing asparagus from seed is easy and rewarding. this video explains some of my ideas on why you should do it as well. TikTok @DaveTheHillsideGardener
Thanks for mentioning the berry part is toxic and should not be eaten. I think it is wise for any gardener tutorials to mention warnings!! I only remember years ago somebody told me Rubarb leaves are not to be eaten but only the stalks. As a beginner gardener I'm going to give aspragus a try from seeds, I am in no rush so s the years go by I look forward to the suprise groth of new sprouts. Happy gardening.😊
After watching your Mulberry propagation video, checking out your other videos, I found this one. Going to try this with my own saved seeds. I only have a small asparagus patch, but last year I saved and dried a bunch of those little red pods. Now that most of the main garden is planted out, think I will try this. Thanks for the inspiration.
I have a bunch of seedlings that pop up each spring I just dig them up and put in pots til fall then stick them in the ground. Hopefully you can get a bigger patch going soon
Planted my first 22 from 1 year crowns, a bunch of mary washington and jersey giants in a 150square foot raised bed. Excited about the long term investment, plan to construct a second raised bed for another big batch from seed. Thanks for the tips
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener yes, thank you dave. With a little luck, these babies will be prolific long after I’m gone and look at least half as good as yours along the way 😊
Honestly, i’m really concerned that being in zone 2, (northern Alberta) that there will be significant winterkill unless i get some sort of snowfencing insulation figured out
I just harvested some seed from Monticello and Mt Vernon. They both have huge asparagus patches in their gardens. Looking forward to growing and sharing some spears.. good video
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener : The patch is about 6 feet wide and 80 feet long. We've never measured the output, but we have to cut every two days to prevent them from going to seed. The plants start to get tough as it gets warmer and we just let them go to seed at that point.
Mine Are outside and it's 90 today And really humid. But I keep them in part shade and moist at all times. Hot and dry with straight up sun will kill them quick
I'm in the Dallas, Texas area and I planted my 4 crowns such that they get about 6 hours of direct morning sun and then benefit from the shade of the house in early afternoon and the rest of the day. This is year 2 that I am letting them go to fern, so in spring of 2024 I hope to get at least a partial harvest. My point being that they all survived the intense and prolonged heat we had here in summer of 2022. I kept water on them twice a week. One more thing, I chose a variety that does well in my area, Zone 8, whereas some varieties do better in cooler climates. Just FYI. Hope this is helpful. 😎👍🏻
My asparagus plants are about 6 or 7 years old and there was always only one female plant that put out berries but this year all of them have berries. Can they morph into females?
Unfortunately. First year no pick. Year 2 maybe a few just for a snack. Year three you can start harvesting for about a months window then year 4 and after 6-8 week window depending on your climate. It’s a long game but a productive asparagus patch can last 20-30 years
I cut down the foliage and shred it up and leave it in top as mulch. I will even add compost or shredded leaves as well. It can survive zone 3-4 so you should be good. Where are you growing it at?
Hey Dave, I planted my seeds 1 week ago and they are starting to sprout. I notice they're on an angle trying to reach the sun/window. When it grows bigger will it grow straight? Should I be worried its on an angle? Thanks!
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener Okay. Its 33c outside all week reckon it will get leafburn? Can I take it outside when its growing a bit bigger or do you think it is important while its a baby? The tallest one is about 4cm. Thanks again!
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener Hey Dave my Asparagus is about 15cm tall now but they are not standing upright is this normal? I saw you had a few droopy ones left of your video. It is a bit windy, but not always. Would it be the wind, anything you suggest to help it? Heres its current state: ru-vid.comjjfWnwM4XaI?feature=share Thanks!
I've planted one pack of seeds every year for the past 4 years. About 92 seeds (one pack per row) and they mostly all grow. All the seeds seem to create male plants. In 2023, I bought my annual packet of seeds for $9.99CDN (twice as much as in other years) and got, 15 seeds which all grew. But come on..., the inflation was outrageous I thought. So I thought I'd save seed. After all, I have about four hundred crowns (aspiring to be a future commercial grower) but none of the plants produced seeds. I had lots of flowers on every plant and a lot of pollinators but the flowers just fizzled up and died at the end of the season. I'm thinking seed might develop on much older plants so I'll wait and try again for the next few years. I have saved my own asparagus seed in the past from a seven-year-old plant but must have lost the original female.
Wow 400 plants. That’s quite an achievement. Here’s my experience. I got one pack of Mary Washington seeds from Baker Creek. Rare seeds.com. I had about a 95 percent germination rate. I planted out a a few in the garden which have been doing quite well. About half are female. They were only 2 years old when they started making “berries”. I harvested about 100 seed pods and regrew them with no issues. I even have tons of volunteer plants that pop up each year. So my question is. What variety are you using. OP seeds or heirlooms will readily sprout for me. If you are using a hybrid seed they have been bread to be mostly all male plants as they are better for commercial growing. Let me know some more info and I’d be happy to help. Good luck with your farming
I have seeded a lot (most) of Mary Washington seeds but not all. The last ones I bought were from a local company which is nationwide so I don't want to name and criticise but the price was outrageous. All the seeds germinated but there was no variety name on the packet so I assume they are selling seeds from their own plants. Also, the original was 7 crowns about 9 years ago and probably had a variety name but I officially forgot though Mary Washington comes to mind also. However, I was given three packets of seed two or three years ago that was a different variety which would be my second of five rows.I kept the packets but they are hidden away somewhere in this house ;) @@DaveTheHillsideGardener
I've seen and heard a lot of good things about Baker's Creed seeds and MIGardener seeds but I haven't shopped either place yet. I have good intentions, lol. But don't often shop online.
I would recommend waiting until fall when it’s dormant to transplant. That being said if you must relocate now make sure you get a huge rootball. Soil and all to disturb as little as possible and water well for a few days until it looks to bounce back from the transplanting.
I would recommend waiting until fall when it’s dormant to transplant. That being said if you must relocate now make sure you get a huge rootball. Soil and all to disturb as little as possible and water well for a few days until it looks to bounce back from the transplanting.
If you germinate in early winter indoors plant outside after last frost. I usually grow them the first season in containers and transplant in fall about 3 weeks before first frost
The best way to get asparagus that I learned from an old timer and he want to find wild heirloom variety That’s about 15 to 20 years old and the root base is about a foot and a half to 2 feet wide. You can either bring him up depending on how many eyes they have but it’s better to leave them as a big one
That would give you a strong plant that would produce right away. I don’t see much wild asparagus growing around me personally but I want my patch to become wild and I’m going to just let it grow in place and see how it transpires
i have planted my seedlings out now. first time trying asparagus seeds...know i have to wait a few years...but it's so exciting! and i love the foliage
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener I am obsessed with starting seedlings. will try anything. avocados, lemon seeds. trying blueberries too...not sure if it is working yet.UK doesn't have the climate for pomegranates, but they are the one of the easiest seedlings to start. your video definitely inspired me to be patient with the asparagus ferns :) so i can reap the rewards in a few years
I'm growing pomegranate from seed this year. I have several in containers and some in-ground. I also have one I'm going to turn into a bonsai specimen.. I say go for it
Great video! I have a question for you: I’ve planted 10 asparagus seeds and they’re an all male variety. Does this mean that in future I’m only ever going be harvesting 10 spears in a season?
Great question. As the plants mature they will generate many shoots to harvest. You can get many spears per each crown. Also as they plants mature the crowns can also be divided this multiplying your plants. Hope this helps
Once established (3 years) you can harvest ALL spears that come up in Spring until about mid June. After that, let the fearns grow. Extra tip: you can harvest the side growth of the ferns, if you want to have a bit of asparagus taste in your meals. Connoisseur tip: eat the spears raw, unbelievable taste and you actually get way more vitamins than if you cook them! Pick and eat them immediately! You can thank me later
Year two once they flower is the only way to really tell. If you don't want female plants just grow a bunch more than you intend to keep and expect to remove some. I have a few male plants mixed in and get viable seeds and the production isn't really that different
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener thanks Dave, I guess that instead of planting them in my beds 18” apart, maybe just 9” or 10” apart so I can thin out (most of) the females after sex determination. That’s assuming that , on average, I’ll get ~ 50% females. I’ll ask Bakers Creek seeds what ratio to expect. Thanks again very much since this seems to be a critical factor ! Happy Holidays!
Seed-grown asparagus actually fits perfectly into the succession-based agroforestry system I'm working on. Crown-grown asparagus would work much worse.
I cell-sowed 6 dried red asparagus berries gathered by my husband (the hiker) and dried in, what I now know, are multi-seed pods. Only one germinated but yielded 4 plants which managed to survive to be potted up. Just three years 'til harvest. My burning question is: are all the seeds from a single pod going to produce all the same sex plants? I've not been able to find this answer in "the google" of botanical inquiry. Thanks for this vid....right what I needed, when I needed it (tho' posted a year ago)
Glad I can help. Honestly I’ve always separated the pods and couldn’t tell ya one way or the other in the sex? My gut says they will vary. However, if you watch my volunteer plant video I harvest a 4 plant clump which has to come from only one berry. So maybe this summer but more likely next, year 2 they will display their sex by their flowers. Great question! Sorry I can’t answer directly
Probably not. A berry is the "fruit" of a plant, many fruits are much bigger. You can search there and find that you will get different gendered plants out of a single fruit with many seeds. A single pollen spore creates 1 seed inside a fruit. Certain fruits can have tons of seeds but will stop after x amount of time of the first pollination. So if you do a heavy pollination you will get lots of seeds or a very poor pollination you may only get 1 seed. Date trees are like this and need human interaction to be heavily pollinated (usually with a big duster and throwing a bag over it so it absorbs all the pollen) to be cultivated well otherwise they produce very poorly.
My fronds are wind beaten and form a hole around the stem in our sandy soil around the fronds after a strong windy day which I fear will pest or fungi to attack the crown. Most eventually fall to the ground and die. Should I tie them up with string maybe?
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener I was sort of thinking to do a variation of the Florida weave used on peppers and tomato but with shorter pieces and bungee cords. I planted them `12" deep and thought maybe I needed to keep hilling the up?
I have wild asparagus in a field around my house and the spears are thumb-sized and larger diameter yet very soft and tasty. Guess they've been here a long time. Is it typical for wild asparagus to be that thick? Most spears I see at the store are pencil thin.
Yes in my garden they get thumb sized as well. The ones from the store are picked twice daily and picked young and small for commercial reasons that prefer them small
Yeah I got my hands on heirloom varieties from a field once that’s asparagus you can get because the heirloom varieties are immune to all asparagus diseases except those stupid beetles . And the best part is from first-hand knowledge from my father those asparagus plants are 56 years old and with the root base 2 feet wide .And that’s one Plant not considering all of its little babies because it’s a female What’s 32 eyes so old her hair loom female asparagus and produce more than males
ok I planted seed last year, and just saw the TINIEST little asparagus (CUTE!) So I just let it sit there, I don't cut it, right (WAY too tiny in diameter) and just keep fertilizing, see how it does next year? Do you ever CUT it back? Or just cut it when you want to harvest?
Just let it grow for two full seasons. It will make a big bush. In late winter cut the dead stalks off and use for mulch on your crowns. Year 3 take a few pencil sized spears. Each year after you can take more.
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener That helps, I had no idea what to expect or do while waiting for the harvest. Just to be clear, do they die off in the winter or stay a green bush?
Hi! I bought asparagus seeds and its June 21 right now in zone 3 alberta. Do you think its too late to start them to plant them in my garden considering that the first frost date is in the end of september? Thanks
It may be a bit late for you. However use 5-6 seeds and start them now and then deep mulch them. Mark the spot, and see if they come back. Meanwhile, put the others in the fridge and bring out around march 1 and sow indoors to get a good head start for next year is the advice I’d give. Best of luck!!
@@DaveTheHillsideGardener Yes!! We are running out of time to plant crowns, so figured we would plan seeds right away, and transplant when dormant in the winter or early spring into new beds. I got behind on my land clearing so hoping to buy some time.
@@stephensarkany3577 I noticed that I have about 50 seedlings popping up in my garden so I’m gonna let them grow in place and dig up this fall and transplant
