Especially in professional cultivation, a good yield is essential. Here you will find tips and tricks from the experts for watering, green manure and damming.
Stem asparagus
If you want to harvest nice long stalks of white asparagus, there is actually no way around damming. From March, as soon as the soil is reasonably dry again, damming is done. Here, loose soil with a height of 30 to 40 cm and a width of 40 cm is poured above the plants. This mound of earth is then lightly fastened to withstand rain showers. If you want to be able to enjoy fresh asparagus particularly early, a foil should be laid out over the dam. This also makes harvesting much easier because digging for the asparagus spears becomes a lot easier and protruding spears don't immediately turn red and green. Another advantage of the film is that weeds cannot establish themselves without light.
Water the asparagus properly
If the soil in the garden is very light, additional watering in the spring will do no harm. You need about 5 liters per square meter per week. This corresponds to about half a standard watering can. In the summer months, the plants can need up to 40 liters per square meter. In general, watering should be gradually reduced in late summer, since watering should be stopped completely from September anyway.
During the vegetation period, green manure can be applied between the rows. Oil radish and yellow mustard are planted for this purpose. This not only prevents leaching of the nutrients, but also loosens the soil. In autumn, the plants are then lightly incorporated into the soil, thus increasing soil life and returning the nutrients absorbed during growth to the soil.
Cut off the asparagus leaves and dispose of them
From October, the asparagus draws the nutrients from the leaves into the storage roots and thus prepares for the winter. After the so-called ripening of the asparagus shoots, the herb can be cut off just above the ground and thenbe disposed of. The herb should not end up on your own compost, as this can sometimes be infected with fungal diseases. The stalks, which just protrude from the ground, partly rot in winter and can easily be pulled out during harvest preparation
About the guest author:
As a graduate engineer in agricultural science, Felix Grebhardt is responsible for sales and marketing at Südwestdeutsche Saatzucht GmbH. The company is a family-run medium-sized plant breeding company based in Rastatt. Asparagus cultivation has a long tradition in the company and can be traced back to 1912. In addition to his job, Mr. Grebhardt passionately grows various types of kiwi, persimmon and figs in his garden.
Further information: www.suedwestsaat.de/spargel