[flowerpower]

We have an asparagus bed thats been there for about 6 or 7 years, so its producing well.

Ive been struggling with a very bad back this spring, and have not kept up with the weeding as much as I usually do... I am now confronted with a veritable blanket of weeds all over the bed, and about 50% of them are tap rooted.

I'm tackling it bit by bit, but would really really like to get it under control as best I can - for the rest of the summer, and going forward into next year.

My husband thinks I should put salt on the bed, but Ive read that its not a good idea at all!

Any ideas...? Many Thanks

[JayG]

Asparagus is salt tolerant to a degree, which is probably where the idea comes from to use it as a weedkiller, but it's a risky one IMHO, and the salt will adversely affect the soil chemistry even if it doesn't actually also kill the asparagus.

I'd hand weed the weeds which will pull out, and either keep chopping off the tap-rooted ones and hope they give up, or possibly use a spot-weeding weedkiller on them.

[Lardman]

Earth them up. It will give you time then anything that makes it out can then be selectively dealt with either by a weedkiller of your choice or dug out. The asparagus crowns wont mind the extra soil either 

[Salmo]

Salt does work but it is no longer recommended as it ruins the soil structure. However I doubt it would help you as it is usually applied in the Spring before weeds emerge.

It should be possible to control weeds, including perennial ones, using glyphosate. There must be green weed leaves and no asparagus should be above ground.

There are two possibilities. Firstly in the very early Spring after the old stems have been cut back and the stumps are dead before any spears are showing. Probably Feb/March but beware an early season.

Secondly, any time in the growing season. This may sound surprising but think about it and it is a good opportunity, but you would have to be very careful. Go over the bed and cut off all spears an inch or two below ground, including the odd ones just showing. Then spray the weeds with glyphosate immediately. If you wait even a few hours there may be additional spears emerging. There would always be a risk that you missed the odd spear which would be killed, possibly the whole root, but if the bed is infested with perennial weeds to the point that it is unmanageable it may be worth the risk. I have never done this but I would give it a try.

[Gardener and Rabbit]

Like Salmo, I'd use glyphosate to save your back. Choose a dry, still day so there's no drift and time for the weeds to absorb the spray. A sprayer with a long lance will also save you stooping over if you have a large area to do. I'm not sure that you'll need to cut the fronds off, provided you are careful to keep the spray down at ground level on the weeds and off the asparagus fronds - perhaps push them away to one side if necessary.  I've maintained a large herbaceous garden using glyphosate, working closely around growing plants, and haven't had problems.  Even if you accidentally touch the base of a stem of an established plant you want to keep, it doesn't deliver enough glyphosate to cause problems.

[Salmo]

Like Salmo, I'd use glyphosate to save your back. Choose a dry, still day so there's no drift and time for the weeds to absorb the spray. A sprayer with a long lance will also save you stooping over if you have a large area to do. I'm not sure that you'll need to cut the fronds off, provided you are careful to keep the spray down at ground level on the weeds and off the asparagus fronds - perhaps push them away to one side if necessary.  I've maintained a large herbaceous garden using glyphosate, working closely around growing plants, and haven't had problems.  Even if you accidentally touch the base of a stem of an established plant you want to keep, it doesn't deliver enough glyphosate to cause problems.

I am would think that if glyphosate goes on the green stems it will probably kill the asparagus. Not worth the risk.

A watering can with a fine rose, or better still a dribble bar, is really better than a sprayer as spray drift is avoided. It is surprizing how far fine spray will carry.

[mumofstig]

Buy the largest size water bottle you can find and cut off the bottom.  Place over an area of weeds and spray through the neck of the bottle, carefully move bottle to next patch of weeds ( be careful of drips as you move bottle the bottle though.)

[ptarmigan]

I'd mulch with really heavy cardboard and put loads of manure down on top of it.  Leave a space around the tall spears and then you are just left with hand weeding those smaller bits.   

[flowerpower]

Thank you so much for all your replies and constructive comments.

I think I'm going to do a mixture!

I have already just about cleared it - Its a bed 5m x 1m and its taken me about 9 man hours to lift most of the weeds. The job got - in some ways- easier as the asparagus was at least taller than the weeds, so I could see what I was doing! The ground is also v dry, so the weeds were slightly easier to lift.

I'm now going to give it a good water, then wait a few days and spray (oh, so so carefully!) on anything that comes up... which it will do, I'm sure. I've previously used the top part pf a bottle around the spray nozzle, so will re-employ it for the job. I'll repeat at regular intervals!

I'll then mulch it come the autumn. It'll be hard to use newspapers or cardboard as there really isn't the space between the rows or the plants, but I'll get a good layer pf something thats 'clean'.

Thank you all again -