ASPARAGUS, ITS CULTURE FOR HOME USE AND FOR MARKET A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE PLANTING, CULTIVATION, HARVESTING, MARKETING, AND PRESERVING OF ASPARAGUS, WITH NOTES ON ITS HISTORY TEXT

In northern latitudes spring sowing is preferable to fall sowing. The ground of the seed-bed should be well drained and fairly retentive of moisture. As soon as the soil admits of working it should be well pulverized and enriched with decomposed manure. On a small scale a spading-fork is the best implement for preparing soil for nursery rows of asparagus plants. Straight lines should be marked about fifteen inches apart and drills made about an inch deep when the sowing is done very early in the season, and one-half to one inch deeper when the sowing is done later. In these drills the seed should be dropped two or three inches apart. The covering may be made with a hoe, after which the soil should be well pressed down with the foot. As the seed is slow to germinate--in from four to six weeks, according to weather conditions--it is well to sow with it a few radish seeds, which will soon appear and mark the lines of the drills, so that cultivation may begin at once. Soaking the seed in luke-warm water for twenty-four hours before sowing will hasten its germination. The cultivation of the young plants consists in keeping the soil about them light, and free from grass and weeds. Most of this work can be done with a garden cultivator, or a hoe and rake or prong hoe, but some hand weeding is generally necessary in addition. Strict attention to this will save a year in time, for if the seed-bed has been neglected, it will take two years to get the plants as large as they should be in one year if they had been properly cared for. In consequence of this very frequent neglect of proper cultivation of the seed-bed, it is a common impression that the plants must be two years old before transplanting. One pound of seed will produce about 10,000 plants, but as many of these will have to be thinned out and poor ones rejected, it is not safe to count upon more than one-half of this number of good plants. The number of plants required for an acre varies according to the manner of planting. If planted in rows three feet apart and two feet in the rows, it will require 7,260 plants per acre; if planted three by four, 3,630 per acre. SOWING THE SEED WHERE THE PLANTS ARE TO REMAIN Growing asparagus without transplanting is gradually finding many advocates among those who raise only the green article. It is not only a cheaper but in some respects a better method than the raising of the plants in a special seed-bed, from which they are transplanted after a year or two. "The plan is very simple," wrote Peter Henderson in _American Agriculturist_, "and can be followed by any one having even a slight knowledge of farming or gardening work. In the fall prepare the land by manuring, deep plowing, and harrowing, making it as level and smooth as possible for the reception of the seed. Strike out lines three feet apart and about two to three inches deep, in which sow the seed by hand or seed-drill, as is most convenient, using from five to seven pounds of seed to each acre. After sowing, and before covering, tread down the seed in the rows with the feet evenly; then draw the back of the rake lengthwise over the rows, after which roll the whole surface. "As soon as the land is dry and fit to work in the spring, the young plants of asparagus will start through the ground, sufficient to define the rows. At once begin to cultivate with hand or horse cultivator, and stir the ground so as to destroy the embryo weeds, breaking the soil in the rows between the plants with the fingers or hand weeder for the same purpose. This must be repeated at intervals of two or three weeks during the summer, as the success of this plan is entirely dependent on keeping down the weeds, which, if allowed to grow, would soon smother the asparagus plants, that, for the first season of their growth, are weaker than most weeds. In two or three months after starting, the asparagus will have attained ten or twelve inches in hight, and it must now be thinned out, so that the plants stand nine inches apart in the rows. By fall they will be from two to three feet in hight and, if the directions for culture have been faithfully followed, strong and vigorous. "When the stems die down (but not before) cut them off close to the ground, and cover the lines for five or six inches on each side with two or three inches of rough manure. The following spring renew cultivation, and keep down the weeds the second year exactly as was done during the first, and so on to the spring of the fourth year, when a crop will be produced that will well reward all the labor that has been expended. Sometimes, if the land is particularly suitable, a marketable crop may be secured the third year, but as a rule it will be better to wait until the fourth year before cutting much, as this would weaken the plants. To compensate for the loss of a year's time in thus growing asparagus from seed, cabbage, lettuce, onions, beets, spinach or similar crops that will be marketable before the asparagus has grown high enough to interfere with them, may be planted between the rows of asparagus the first year of its growth with but little injury to it." GOOD CROPS TWO YEARS FROM SEED In answer to the many inquiries as to how asparagus can be grown to weigh two and three-fourths pounds per bunch of twenty-six stalks from plants two years old from seed, as exhibited at a recent American Institute spring exhibition, George M. Hay, of Connecticut, writes in _American Gardening_ as follows: "Select a piece of ground where the soil is light, but of a good depth, and plow thoroughly. About the 1st of May mark off the rows three or four feet apart--for myself I prefer the latter distance as giving plenty of room for cultivation. Run a two-horse plow over the same furrow two or three times and you will have a depth of from fourteen to eighteen inches. "Trenches having been all made, we come to the most important part--namely, manuring. In order to give the young plants a good start after germination we have to use liberal quantities of well-rotted stable manure, and in this the young plants make roots that in a short time are surprising. I use a one-horse load of manure to every seventy-five feet of drill, tramping it well down, and with a rake draw from each side of the trench soil to cover the manure to a depth of from two to three inches. The surface is raked level, and with the end of a rake or hoe a furrow one inch deep is drawn. "We are now ready for the seed, which should have been soaked in tepid water for at least twenty-four hours. This will insure the immediate starting of the seed when the soil is moist and has not had a chance to dry out. If unsoaked seed is used and we have a dry spell for two or three weeks, the seed will be almost useless by the time it receives moisture enough to start. "When the asparagus is two or three inches high thin out to one foot apart, being very careful not to disturb the plants left. A piece of a stick cut to the shape of a table-knife is an ideal tool for thinning out the young plants. It will be necessary to weed the rows by hand, while the plants are very small, for a distance of six inches on each side, as the cultivator, if run too close, will cover up the young plants. Keep the horse cultivator at work as often as possible to maintain moisture for the young roots. "By fall you will be surprised to learn how far the young roots have traveled and the crowns prepared for next year's crop. Cover the rows with stable manure for the winter, and in spring give a dressing of one pound of nitrate of soda to one hundred feet of drill, and you will be well repaid for the extra labor and outlay by being able to cut asparagus of extra size in two years from the time of sowing the seed, doing away with the transplanting of two-year-old roots, and then waiting two more years before the first crop can be cut." The principal objection which has been made against this system of not transplanting is that it does not admit of a careful choice of plants, as the plants must be kept in the places where sown, while in the transplanting method we need use only the choicest plants; then, if two or three seeds come up close together, it is very difficult to thin them out, and if left they will produce an inferior growth. POT-GROWN ASPARAGUS PLANTS In the tests made at the Missouri Experiment Station, Prof. J. C. Whitten found that it is much better to plant the seeds in six inches of rich, sandy soil in the greenhouse or hotbed, in February or early March, than to wait two or three months for outdoor planting. Professor Whitten advises to "sow liberally, for seven-eighths of the seedlings should be discarded. When the seedlings are three inches high, select those which have the thickest, fleshiest, and most numerous stems, and pot them. They vary more than almost any other vegetable. Many that appear large and vigorous will have broad, flat, twisted, or corrugated stems. Discard them. Beware, also, of those that put out leaves close to the soil. These will all make tough, stringy, undesirable plants. The best plants are those which are cylindrical, smooth, and free from ridges. They shoot up rapidly, and attain a hight of two inches before leaves are put out. They look much like smooth needles. This matter of selecting the best plants for potting, and subsequent planting out, is of the greatest importance in asparagus culture. "These young plants should first be put in small pots and moved into larger ones as soon as they are well rooted. They may need to be shifted twice before they are planted out-of-doors, which should be done when danger of frost is over. Started in this way they continue to grow from the time they are planted out and reach very large size the first season. In the case of nursery-grown plants, where seeds are sown directly out-of-doors, the young seedlings start very slowly, are very tender during their early growth, and if the weather is unfavorable they hardly become well established before autumn." [Illustration: FIG. 13--ONE-YEAR-OLD POT-GROWN ASPARAGUS PLANT] Fig. 13 shows a one-year-old plant started in February in the greenhouse and transplanted to the field the first of May. Plants grown in this way reach as good size in one year as the nursery-grown plants usually do in three years. VI SELECTION OF PLANTS That strong, healthy, one-year-old plants are in every way to be preferred to two or three year old ones has been demonstrated by many carefully conducted experiments, and is now universally recognized by intelligent and observant asparagus growers. The most noteworthy and accurate experiments in this line were made by the famous French asparagus specialist M. Godefroy-Leboeuf, who planted twelve stools of one, two, and three years old respectively in the same soil under the same conditions and at the same time. Calling those plantings Nos. 1, 2, and 3, the following are the results obtained: _First Year._--No. 1.--All the stools came up before May 4th, and were well grown. No. 2.--Ten stools showed above ground before May 4th, one on the 10th, and one appeared to be dead. The asparagus heads were very fine--finer, indeed, than those of No. 1. No. 3.--Eight stools showed above ground before May 4th, one on the 12th, and three gave no signs of life. The heads were very fine at first, but they became bent toward the end of the year (September 15th), and were much weaker than those of No. 2. * * * * * _Second Year._--No. 1.--Well-grown, regular, and strong heads, which measured on September 15th one inch in circumference. No. 2.--Well-grown but irregular heads, somewhat weaker than those of No. 1. No. 3.--Only pretty well-grown heads, very irregular, some of the stools having as many as eight or ten, but all very weak. One stool died after growing two heads. * * * * * _Third Year._--No. 1.--Magnificent growths, the heads measuring on April 10th from two inches to three and one-quarter inches in circumference. No. 2.--Growth passable only, but very irregular. Some of the stools were very small. The finest of them produced heads which from April 8th to 10th only measured two and one-half inches in circumference. No. 3.--Growth very poor and very irregular. Some of the stools continued to produce small heads not much thicker than a quill pen, the largest being from one and one-half inch to two inches in circumference. * * * * * _Fourth Year._--No. 1.--Growth very remarkable. The heads began to show on April 3d, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th. Some were from three and one-quarter inches to four inches in circumference, and measured four and three-quarter inches. Fifty of the heads formed a bundle which weighed seven pounds. No. 2.--Growth passable, but later than No. 1. The heads made their first appearance on April 6th, 10th, and 11th. Many of them were very small; fifty of them barely made half a bundle, and only weighed three and three-quarter pounds. No. 3.--Growth but poor, and somewhat late. The heads made their appearance on April 4th, 6th, 9th, and 11th; one did not show till the 22d. Fifty heads barely formed half a bundle and only weighed two and one-half pounds. To sum up, it is clear that the plants of a year old in their fourth season--that is to say, after having been planted out for three years--gave a bundle weighing seven pounds, while those of two years old only gave three and three-quarter pounds, and those of three years old only two and one-half pounds; in other words, taking round numbers, the plantation made with the one-year-old plants produced double the crop of the two-year-old plants and treble that of the three-year-old plants. The reader may easily draw his conclusions from the preceding facts. Equally important is a careful selection of the individual plants to be set out. A crown with four or five strong, well-developed buds is far better than one with a dozen or more of weak and sickly ones, as the latter will always produce thin and poor spears of poor quality. It is therefore highly to be recommended to select only plants with not over six buds and discard all others. The roots should be strong and of uniform thickness, succulent and not too fibrous. Dry or withered roots have to be cut off, and plants with many bruised or otherwise damaged roots should be rejected entirely. The best roots are the cheapest. MALE AND FEMALE PLANTS It has long been observed that all of the asparagus plants in a bed do not produce seeds, owing to the fact that the male and female flowers in asparagus are nearly always borne on separate plants. Seed bearing is an exhaustive process, and, as might be supposed, those plants that have produced seed have less vigor than those that have not. In order to determine the difference in vigor between the seed bearing and non-seed bearing plants, Prof. William J. Green, horticulturist of the Ohio Experiment Station, staked off fifty of each in a plantation of half an acre. When the cuttings were made the shoots taken from male and female plants were kept separate, and the weight of each recorded in Bulletin No. 9, Volume III., of the Ohio Station, as follows: "The cuttings were made at regular intervals and in the ordinary manner, as for market purposes. The weight of shoots taken at each cutting is not given in the table, since the facts are quite as well shown by stating the aggregate weight for periods of ten days each. The division into periods is made for the purpose of showing comparative earliness. This could be shown in a more marked degree by taking the first and second cuttings alone, but they were too limited in quantity to admit of conclusions being drawn from them; hence they are included with the other cuttings in the same period. PRODUCT FROM FIFTY PLANTS EACH, MALE AND FEMALE +========================+=============+============+ |_Product from|_Product from | fifty male | fifty female | plants_ | plants_ +------------------------+-------------+------------+ | _Ounces_ | _Ounces_ First period, 10 days | 37 | 21 Second period, 10 days | 104 | 68 Third period, 10 days | 266 | 164 Fourth period, 10 days | 203 | 154 +-------------+------------+ Total for the season | 610 | 407 +========================+=============+============+ "This shows a gain of the male over the female plants of seventy-six per cent. for the first period, and a fraction less than fifty per cent. for the whole season. Reversing the standard of comparison, it will be seen that the female plants fall below the male forty-three per cent. for the first period, and a little more than thirty-three per cent. in the total. In no case did the female plants produce equally with the male. "If comparative earliness is determined by the date of first cutting alone, there is no difference between the male and female plants, since the first cutting was made on both at the same date; but taking quantity of product into consideration, which is the proper method, there is a decided difference, the gain of the male over the female plants being seventy-six, fifty-two, sixty-three, and thirty-one per cent. for the four periods respectively. The difference in yield between the two was greatest at first, and diminished toward the last, which practically amounts to the same thing as the male being earlier than the female. There is a still further difference between the two in quality of product, the shoots of the female plant being smaller and inferior to those of the male. "It is not safe to draw conclusions from such limited observations as these, further, at least, than to accept them as representing the truth approximately. Allowing a wide margin for possible error, there would still seem to be sufficient difference in productive capacity between the male and female plants to justify the selection of the former and rejection of the latter when a new plantation is to be started. If the figures given in the table are taken as a basis, the gain in the crop, if the male plants alone were used, would each season pay for all the plants rejected, and leave a handsome margin at the end of the term of years when an asparagus bed has served its period of usefulness. Male plants can be secured by division of old plants, or by selecting those that bear no seed, after they have attained the age of two years." In summing up the results of this experiment, Professor Green states that male asparagus plants are about fifty per cent. more productive than female plants, and the shoots being larger have a greater market value. VII THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION As asparagus in its wild state is usually found growing in light and sandy soils along or near the seashore, it has long been supposed that it could not be cultivated in other localities and soils. While it is true that asparagus succeeds best in a sandy, rich, and friable loam, naturally underdrained and yet not too dry, there is not another vegetable which accommodates itself more readily to as varying soils and conditions. There is hardly a State in the United States in which at present asparagus is not grown more or less extensively and profitably, and the most famous asparagus districts of France and Germany are situated at great distances from the seashore. The question of what soil to use is, as a rule, already settled; we have to use the soil we have. Any good garden soil is suitable for asparagus,