Ok, here's a topic for discussion. How many of you have planted an asparagus bed, and how did you plant it? (variety, age of crowns, or started from seed, distance between crowns, depth of crowns at initial planting) What is your soil like, and how do you manage your bed? Size of bed? Age of bed? How much do you harvest from your bed? And how do you maintain fertility in your bed?
It seems that the old time recommendation was to get those crowns in a very deep trench, and gradually back fill it as the newly planted crowns sent up spears. The more recent information I'm reading says to dig your trench 6 - 8" deep, and set the crowns so the eyes are about 1 - 2" deep. This makes a whole lot more sense to me, b/c as I was digging holes last night to set some crowns in a bed that is not productive, I noticed a lot of thick roots from existing crowns running all over the place just under the wood chips. BTW, I have harvested some nice fat spears from this bed, and am hopefully optimistic that the asparagus will thrive with BTE!
It seems that the old time recommendation was to get those crowns in a very deep trench, and gradually back fill it as the newly planted crowns sent up spears. The more recent information I'm reading says to dig your trench 6 - 8" deep, and set the crowns so the eyes are about 1 - 2" deep. This makes a whole lot more sense to me, b/c as I was digging holes last night to set some crowns in a bed that is not productive, I noticed a lot of thick roots from existing crowns running all over the place just under the wood chips. BTW, I have harvested some nice fat spears from this bed, and am hopefully optimistic that the asparagus will thrive with BTE!