[3759allen]

has any one grown asparagus from seed?

i was thinking of growing some from crowns but prob won't have the room to plant them for a year or two so thinking i may grow from seed in some sort of container.

how long before asparagus will be ready to plant in their final bed from sowing seed?

how long from planting to the first crop?

thanks for any help and advice.

[Kristen]

I grew mine from seed - bought the seed in the Autumn sale at 50p a packet, so my 60 crowns cost me about a £quid . My bed wasn't ready in Year 1 either.

Sowed in Spring, potted on to 2L (3L might be a better target), left outside over that winter (no room under cover, I was advised they would be fine, they froze solid but were fine), planted out the following spring (carefully uncoiled the roots and planted them "star shaped" as one would with bought-in crowns).  Comparing my year-1 [after planting out] photos with other folk, who had grown from bought-in crowns, I think my plants were bigger


Seedlings (in June 2009, in greenhouse)


Rootball when planting out


Planted (on a bed of sand, in a raised bed) in Spring 2010


July 2010


July 2011

First (light) crop in 2012, full cropping from 2013 onwards

If I was doing it again:

I would only sow all-male varieties (females self seed and add to the weeding issues)
I would choose a mix of Early and Mid season varieties.  Late varieties also exist, but I don't see the point of picking that late, I figure that I'm going to stop harvesting on the longest day whatever the variety, and I pick mine until then, but its an option.

I have 60 crowns.  That's probably excessive ... we pick twice a week, have enough for family and feeding friends when they come, or we go out, which is probably about once a week.

More pictures etc. on my blog

[Yorkie]

That's really interesting Kristen 

[3759allen]

this may be a silly question but how do you get an all male plant / variety. i had a quick look through some asparagus seeds and can't see anything about being all male or mixed varieties.

thanks.

[BabbyAnn]

this may be a silly question but how do you get an all male plant / variety. i had a quick look through some asparagus seeds and can't see anything about being all male or mixed varieties.

thanks.

I was curious by Kristen's comment as I would have thought seeds could be either but apparently in this article from Organic Gardening

Asparagus plants are monoecious—each individual plant is either male or female. Some varieties of asparagus, such as ‘Jersey Knight’ and ‘Jersey Giant’ produce all male or primarily male plants

My current asparagus patch are grown from seed and are coming up to Year 3.  Some plants seem to do better than others but I guess that is the nature and diversity of open pollinated plants.  I also think perhaps the bed I chose is not that suitable but I have hopes they will start to be productive - if not, I'll move them and see if they do better before deciding to go for crowns.

[Kristen]

how do you get an all male plant / variety

F1 seed, such as from Moles Seeds:

http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/flower_and_vegetable_seed_store_uk/Products_Asparagus_3225.html

I recommend you research varieties a bit. Your Asparagus bed will be productive for 20 years, or more - plus not produce anything for a few years - so worth getting it Right First Time.

Mine is fine, but with the benefit of hindsight I would have chosen varieties more carefully. Even more important for any folk who only have room for a relatively few crowns, as important that they perform exceptionally well and taste fantastic

[Deo_Kleo]

I tried growing asparagus from seeds, but it didn't turn out well. They started growing well but at some point they all died. I don't know what happened. But I didn't give up on the idea of growing my own asparagus, so I tried a second time, but with root crowns. Now I enjoy my own tasty asparagus!
Here's a handy article on the topic.
Hope your seeds do well. It takes a little longer than crowns,  but you know you took part in the whole process of growing.

[Kristen]

Here's a handy article on the topic.

There are good articles right here on this site too

Index:
http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/index.php

Asparagus:
http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/asparagus/index.php