Anyone got any Asparagus tips? (pun intended)

[ThomWV]

I have made a semi-permanent raised bed to plant asparagus in. Anyone got any hints on planting it or the first year's maintenance?

[NMDemDist2]

1. I completely ignored mine for 2 years and still got spears this year

they grow wild around here in the ditches on the side of the road

so I'm no help at all, but I do know they are heavy feeders and you'll want to mulch this fall after you cut down the ferns

let's compare beds next spring after I give mine some much needed maintenance

the other thing I noticed is the spears come out EARLY in the year

it was still getting frost some nights when the spears came up

[ThomWV]

2. How heavy can I mulch them?

If asparagus grew in ditches around here my wife would weigh 700 pounds and her skin would be green.

I should be fine for soil nutrients. I filled the bed with sifted 3-year-old cow manure/shredded-bark based compost. What I'm worried about is it gets mighty cold here in the winters, occasionally as low as -20 but often below zero and weeks on end that never get up to freezing. So winter mulch sounds important. How is it where you are and what will you do as you rejuvenate your bed?

[NMDemDist2]

3. I'd mulch em pretty heavy with those temps. we get into the teens around here

at night but rarely lower than that and almost always above freezing during the day.

I'm in the desert at about 3100'elev so our winters are relatively mild

first I have to weed the bed severely, the buffalo grass is thick in there. I'll do a good compost addition later in the summer and cut down the ferns and fertilize then mulch with about 2" of clean straw this fall

I'll have spears in March I bet. and lots of them I hope.

they recommend to feed the first year crop in late summer then do what I outlined above again in fall before the temps start dropping.

edit to add, hubby's grandmother had asparagus in her garden in eastern WA and their temps were very cold like yours for weeks at a time. and she had good luck with hers, just they came on later than mine will. as soon as you can work the ground next spring, start looking for spears, they are a cold crop I tell ya!

[noamnety]

4. You should be fine.

I'm growing it here in Michigan, brrrrr. I've been abusing my bed, started it well with manure, but haven't been doing anything to it being that, no mulch, no compost additions. This year I abused it even more, digging it up to transplant, which you aren't really supposed to do - but my first spears are starting to break ground this week.

The asparagus capital of the world is in Michigan, zone 5.

http://www.asparagusthemovie.com/

[crispini]

5. I would put the black hen fertilizer on it in the fall.

Also, make sure it gets enough water over the summer. I did both of those things two years ago and it was fine, did neither last year and killed it. :(

[Blue Gardener]

6. From the WV Extension Service

This might help:

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/homegard/spgasparg.htm

[ThomWV]

7. Deleted