[barney rubble]

Its my first year growing the stuff, but the last couple of days has seen the single stems soar upwards - I've got one thats 18 inches tall - I swear it was only 4 inches at the weekend. Has anybody else seen this in theirs, and is it down to the good bank holiday weather we had ?

Can anybody advise how tall  they get before the ferns start appearing? Such a pity I can't cut one to try

[DD.]

I'm cutting a big bunch every day, they're growing that fast.

At 18" tall, the spears should very soon start to open.

[Elcie]

Sounds brilliant!  I got some extra space this year so am thinking about having an asparagus bed.  When is the best time to plant one?

[barney rubble]

Sounds brilliant!  I got some extra space this year so am thinking about having an asparagus bed.  When is the best time to plant one?

I only planted mine out on 21/4/09 Elcie. I bought one year old crowns. A couple of them are very thin, but suppose you've got to expect a feeble start initially. You can't crop them for the first year tho, so you don't sap the roots of energy, so just let them turn into ferns. Can't wait for next year's crop tho

[DD.]

I started mine from seed about 7-8 years ago, knowing that it would be a long term project & 3 years from sowing until I could cut some.

From 40 seed I sowed that a fellow plot holder gave me from his plants, I got 39 crowns & have a glut of it every year now.

[barney rubble]

I started mine from seed about 7-8 years ago, knowing that it would be a long term project & 3 years from sowing until I could cut some.

From 40 seed I sowed that a fellow plot holder gave me from his plants, I got 39 crowns & have a glut of it every year now.

Can you remember how long they took to germinate DD, and were they in a greenhouse or other protected conditions for germination?

I've sown some packet Martha Washington - with a similar long term view like yours. The packet says they take a long time to germinate

[DD.]

To be honest, I can't, I've been to bed since!

I sowed 40 in individual modules, (seed tray inserts), and left them to it in the greenhouse whilst I got on with other things!

[barney rubble]

To be honest, I can't, I've been to bed since!

Sowed 7 - 8 years ago - you must be Rip Van Winkle then eh?

Just left mine outside as I've no greenhouse, but hopefully something will happen sometime.

Do you know if I'll get any seeds from mine one year olds as they turn into ferns?  Be a mega bonus if I did, cos I'm thrilled with the stock I bought and the results so far

[DD.]

Probably not this year, maybe next.

However, the thing is the berries are obviously borne on the female plants. These have the thinner stems when it comes to harvesting spears and you don't get such a good crop off them.

A lot of people who grow from seed, chose only to keep the male crowns for this reason, and it's the males that you commerically buy. I'm fortunate enough to have the growing space, so I was kind and didn't cull the females, so have literally 1,000's of berries each year & probably tens of 1,000's of seeds!

[barney rubble]

wow - got a few match stick spears so might be lucky with me lady plants then

[HelenK]

We currently have some 2 year old crowns that we got from eBay sitting in a bucket of water with soil in. We've been told loads of scarey stories about growing asparagus from more experienced growers on the plots, you should see the foot long plus spears shooting out of them at the moment! They can't be that fussy if they grow like that in muddy water?! (She says hopefully....).

[Kristen]

"I've sown some packet Martha Washington - with a similar long term view like yours. The packet says they take a long time to germinate"

I sowed "Martha Washington" this year, using a window-sill propagator, sown on 01-April and germinated on 12-April

[barney rubble]

I sowed "Martha Washington" this year, using a window-sill propagator, sown on 01-April and germinated on 12-April

That was very quick - I've just had a nosey at your blog and it looks like you've got some pucker kit there to speed things up. Mines just outside, but hopefully the warm weather will help things along. The seeds had a soaking first.

[corynsboy]

Mine went in around mid April this year. 

http://growingyourownveg.blogspot.com/2009/04/worth-wait.html

I've got twenty crowns.  Two beds of early and two beds of late harvest so I should get a decent season in a couple of years. 

All my plants are from Canadian stock.  As they are all males and F1 I’ve got no chance of seeds.
Every plant now has at least one thin stringy stem with a fern on top.  Some are over two feet tall and some are only five or six inches tall.  I guess it depends on the variety and soil etc on how quickly the ferns are produced.   The spears do grow very quickly.  I put my plants in and covered them with about four or five inches of sieved soil.  Within two days the first spears had broken through the soil. 

[muntjac]

im reading some horror stories and loads of misinformation on sparrow grass .try reading here for the info on this . also search for my other posts on sparrowgrass
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=7045.0