Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Potty Plotty Lotty on March 30, 2024, 17:12
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These were poking through when I popped to the plot yesterday :tongue2:
How are other people's doing?
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We have just four or five spears showing, that's early for us.
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I must check
Ground very wet last time I visited so hope they won’t sulk.
Thanks for prompt HH
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Just back none showing yet.
Removed a good harvest of couch grass though !!
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Had about a dozen so far, agree it does seem early.
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Spotted 1 spear peeping through this morning, I did mulch the bed heavily in the autumn, : and yes I need to weed the patch too.
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Had first 3 spears on Sunday. Last year the first was 8th April.....
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Another one peeping out this afternoon :)
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First signs of life here. I saw a couple of spears just breaking through the soil today :)
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No sign of anything here. A bit worried as the ground is completely saturated. Fingers crossed.
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Fingers crossed.
My fingers crossed for you as well. It would be gutting to lose established crowns :(
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No sign of anything here. A bit worried as the ground is completely saturated. Fingers crossed.
Wet bed here in Hampshire no sign of spears. Only plus for me is if they build on my allotments as planned I can’t move them anyway I’m afraid 😟!! Hope yours don’t object to the soggy ground Anne.
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Great excitement two spears emerging today.
Checked previous discussion in 2015 (see below) my first spear emerged on 15th April so I’m actually ahead by a whole day. Have to see what the threatened rain does to the crop at present.
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Great excitement two spears emerging today.
The same here!!!
The other end of the bed is drawing a blank though. Pleased that some have survived at least.
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Nothing showing yet in the Plot 13 asparagus bed... have so far resisted the urge to poke around below the surface!
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First picking today :lol:
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First asparagus tip showing today! Unfortunately, it appears to have been nibbled :mad: - not sure if it's rats or slugs, no apparent slime so guess it's the latter Grrrr!
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It's been slow progress with the cold weather and all, but have had 3 or 4 good cuts so far. wonder when the dreaded beetle will appear....
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Slow start to season due to the cold and damp soil I think ?
Had a couple of spears but nothing like normal by now.
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One was a couple of inches tall before I sliced it with the hoe :(, tasted good though. Hoping the warmer weather this week should have it producing strongly by weeks end. You’d hope so anyway in the first week of May.
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Went to the allotment today to do some digging and while I wasn’t looking, my dog started helping himself to the asparagus tips >: :mad:. He also managed to ingest a fair bit of mud trying to eat the rest of the spear which he then threw up on the carpet when he got home :ohmy:
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Oh no! Hope that taught him :ohmy:
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Reasonable harvest today.
Not massive spears but quite enough for our supper.
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Oh no! Hope that taught him :ohmy:
It won’t have ::)
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Hurrah! Happy to confirm that either the rat/slug deterrent activities have worked OR the Plot 13 Asparagus was just a bit lazy and is now properly woken up - spears as thick as my fingers are popping up from all 5 crowns - Yay!!!!
They only went in last year so I wont be taking a harvest yet, but its just so great to see them!
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This warm weather seems to have turbo charged my asparagus, took some round to the neighbours as the fridge was filling up.
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This warm weather seems to have turbo charged my asparagus, took some round to the neighbours as the fridge was filling up.
Same here. Having picked on Thursday evening I was greeted by this sight this morning. I could almost see them growing before my eyes!
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Serious harvest here in Hampshire too.
Enough for dinner and some into store for soup.
Had to squash some beetles though.
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Oh I am green with envy at your harvests! I only have to wait one more year..... :tongue2:
Quick question for you guys - Some of my spears came up curly, I mean REALLY curly! I read that this could be due to scraping against stones on the way up, and as my soil IS very stony, would it be worth VERY carefully excavating the soil around the crowns at the end of the season and sifting out any stones I find? then refilling around them with some decent topsoil? Thanks.
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Interesting question I had normally assumed my bent spears were as a result of beetle or slug damage. You are correct though that stones can bend the spears along with wind. I would be very careful about shifting soil around them at present.
As I say I get some bent spears but I normally just cut them off and discard them. If you wish you can keep them for soup of course. I would be tempted to hold off for a couple of seasons to let the plants get well established and then consider stone removal if you are getting a lot of bent spears then. Good luck HH
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/12/british-asparagus-back-in-supermarkets-after-criticism-over-imports
Apparently it can grow over 10cm in a day :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: