Chapter 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.