Do not harvest asparagus at all the first year after planting crowns
Do not harvest asparagus at all the first year after planting crowns. When harvest begins (the second or third spring, depending on the source you follow), keep it short. Pick for about two weeks in the first harvest year, no more than a month, then let every later spear grow out. From the fourth year on, harvest can run eight to ten weeks. After harvest ends, let the spears grow into ferns and leave them standing, because the ferns are what feed the crown for next year.
Promising A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
Every spear is drawn from energy stored in the crown, and the ferns are what refill that store. The fern's photosynthesis is banked underground to produce the following year's spears. A young planting is still expanding its root storage system, so cutting its spears removes the shoots that would have become ferns, and excessive removal of spears weakens the plants. Restraint in the establishment years is what builds a crown strong enough to bear a full harvest for decades.
What to do about it
Year one after planting crowns: harvest nothing and let everything fern out. In the first year you do harvest, pick for about two weeks only, a month at most, then stop. From the fourth year on, harvest from first spears through May or June, about eight to ten weeks. Every year, once harvest ends, let the remaining spears develop into ferns and take care of them; they are next year's crop being banked.
How much it matters: No figure is given beyond the durations the sources state (no harvest year one; about two weeks, at most a month, in the first harvest year; eight to ten weeks from year four). The sources say over-harvest of a young bed weakens the plants and give no yield numbers. Because the harvest calendar is entirely the gardener's choice, the rule only advises.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 2 sources in the research-based literature.
The 2 sources
In the first year of harvest, only pick asparagus for two weeks
During the fourth year and thereafter, the spears may be harvested from their first appearance in the spring through May or June (as long as 8 to 10 weeks).
Plants it applies to
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How this rule has changed
Every change is dated, newest first. The full record, with each reason, is in the data download.
- Wording made clearer
- Added to the rules
Cite this page
Milpa Gardens. "Do not harvest asparagus at all the first year after planting crowns. When harvest begins (the second or third spring, depending on the source you follow), keep it short. Pick for about two weeks in the first harvest year, no more than a month, then let every later spear grow out. From the fourth year on, harvest can run eight to ten weeks. After harvest ends, let the spears grow into ferns and leave them standing, because the ferns are what feed the crown for next year." Evidence grade: Promising. https://milpa.garden/rules/do-not-harvest-asparagus-all-first-year/
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- Well established
- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
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- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
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