[green_lolly]

My asparagus crowns have arrived - hoorah - but what shall I do until I can plant them?

It may be a day or two until I can get to the allotment so I've wrapped them in wet cloth and put in the cellar. Is this okay? Should I soak them in water before planting?

[JayG]

As long as they weren't dried out when you got them, and don't dry out before you plant them, they should be fine. Give them a good wateriing after you plant them to settle them in a bit.

[green_lolly]

They were pretty dry when they arrived

[Goosegirl]

If the time between posting and receiving them was reasonable, they shouldn't have dried out. Personally I would complain.

[Kristen]

I would send them back too.  Where did they come from?

[JayG]

Not easy to tell if something like an asparagus crown is 'OK' or slightly dehydrated.

If they were packed with some moss or compost, that should have still been at least a little damp.

The spindly roots should certainly have shown no signs of wrinkling.

[green_lolly]

They were from Dobies. I will check them again and see how wrinkly the roots are but they have been wrapped in wet cloth for 24 hours now which may have changed them.

They were packaged with no compost or moss just in a plastic bag in a box.

[Kristen]

I wonder if the "seed" companies outsource provision of things like Asparagus Crowns and Seed Potatoes / Garlic etc.  Whilst I've had great seeds from them I've had very mixed results with other products - often substitutions and delays where clearly their website was not "aware" of stock levels etc.  Also seemed to me that I got poorer quality than buying direct from a specialist - i.e. maybe they were shipped to seed company and then stored / reshipped and thus further delayed.  I've had Seed Potatoes shipped far too early in the Winter, and when there was really significant cold weather (whereas the likes of JBA suspend shipments when the weather turns Arctic)

So perhaps buying from a specialist is better? Downside would be cost of carriage, whereas buying from a Seed Company etc. would allow bulking up an order with other things to offset any carriage cost.