Asparagus is a perennial that won’t grow much harvest in the first year or two but for many years can be harvested almost every other day because of how fast it can grow. It’s also delicious either raw or cooked and is very nutritious! Planting sprouts straight from a greenhouse or transplanting a fully grown plant involve very different planting techniques.

Asparagus grows tall and begins to resemble an odd tree when it gets close to seeding. Photo taken by Joseph Ingrao, June 19th 2014

For new sprouts, you start with soil that’s been lightly tilled with a tilling rake with 3 foot wide beds separated by 1 foot wide paths. In the beds, you mark off lines 1 foot from the path on either side (and therefore with one foot between these lines.) Then you take a wheel hoe with a shovel-like attachment and run it along those marked lines, making a sort of W shape in the soil.

Once you have a W, you take your asparagus sprouts and dig them into the middle bump of the W at 1 foot intervals, making sure to pack the dirt to cover all their roots in a way that will maintain the W shape of the soil. You want to water them very soon after putting them in the ground this way, for about 5 seconds for each plant. Excess water will run into the dips of the W, staying where the roots of the new plants can reach it without drowning them.

For an already established asparagus plant that you wish to move, or one that you ordered from somewhere else, the process is different. You don’t need to till the soil necessarily, but you still need your 3 foot wide bed. You dig a hole at least 10 inches deep, it needs to be deep enough to cover all the roots of the asparagus, or even go above them a little. At the bottom of the hole, you want a mound of dirt in the center and a sort of moat of empty space around that mound. This serves the same purpose as the W for planting sprouts, a place for water to collect and be accessible without drowning the plant. Place the asparagus in the hole and cover it, preferably with good soil or compost to help it adjust to its new spot. Then you want to water it an outrageous amount, perhaps a whole watering can’s worth, again to help it adjust.

Asparagus can grow very quickly, sometimes yielding a new harvest over one or two nights. To harvest a stalk that looks ready, you cut it off the plant right below the soil and then cut it again right under where the stalk will easily bend, to mark what is edible.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014