Chapter V: The Raising of Plants

Asparagus can be propagated by division of the roots, but this method gives so unsatisfactory results that it is rarely practiced. Raising the plants from seed is therefore the only method worth considering. The seed may be sown either in the fall or spring. But far more important than the time for sowing is the quality of the seed. While asparagus seed retains its vitality for two or more years, it is not safe to use seed older than one year. Fresh seed may be recognized by its glossy black color and uniform smooth surface, while old seed has a smutty gray color and its surface is generally rough and wrinkled. Yet even with this as a guide it is not easy to distinguish bad from good seed, and still more difficult, if not impossible, is it to distinguish the seed of different varieties. It is therefore advisable to procure seed only from dealers of undoubted reliability and pay a fair price for it rather than to accept poor seed as a gift. A uniformity of the individual plants in the asparagus bed or field is a matter of prime importance; only large, fully developed seeds should be used, screening out and rejecting all small and inferior ones.

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."

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.