Erasmus (F1) Asparagus Seed

Scientific name

Asparagus officinalis

Culture

Asparagus is a long-lived perennial: a well-chosen, well-prepared and well-kept bed can produce for 15 years or more. It wants fertile, free-draining soil at pH 7.2 or higher, in sun or part shade. Test and prepare the soil the season before planting. It may struggle in the warmest states (such as TX, LA, MS, AL, GA and FL), where plants may not go dormant and are then exposed to freeze damage.

From seed

Start indoors 12–14 weeks before transplanting, one seed per 2" cell, 1/2–3/4" deep. Germinate at 23–27°C (75–80°F) by day and about 18°C (65°F) at night, and feed moderately. After the last frost, plant seedlings like crowns but in a W-shaped furrow, setting them in the middle for better drainage, and fill the furrow gradually as they grow without burying the small ferns.

Planting crowns

Plant about 3–4 weeks before the average last frost, in a furrow 5–8" deep (shallower in heavy soil, deeper in cold regions), buds up and roots spread. Space green varieties 8–14" apart and purple ones 6–8" (closer spacing gives slimmer purple spears), with 3–6' between rows. Cover with 2–3" of soil and fill the furrow as spears grow.

Care

Cultivate carefully so you do not damage crowns. Keep the bed weed-free (straw or leaf mulch helps) and water regularly while plants establish. Let the ferns grow and leave them until they die back in fall. Add compost or aged manure every fall or early spring.

Harvest

Pick for 7–10 days in spring the year after planting, 2–3 weeks the next year, and up to 6 weeks from the third year. Take spears about 6–9" long and at least pencil-thick, snapping them off or cutting just below the soil. Stop when spears come up thinner than a pencil.

Storage

Stand spears upright at about 2°C (36°F) and 95–100% humidity for up to 2 weeks.

Packet

30 seeds.

Seeds per lb.

About 19,900 on average.