Asparagus is one of the most nutritious and appropriate food crops to have in your garden. The crop comes with a unique taste, amazing crunch, and pleasant color that makes your garden attractive and acts as a source of food for your family. No garden crop taste profile can rival the taste and crunchiness of the homegrown asparagus; thus, most individuals are looking to grow it in their gardens. This article will answer the question, ‘How to Grow Asparagus from Cuttings?’
How to Grow Asparagus from Cuttings?
We’ve got several ways of growing asparagus, but propagating it from the cuttings is an effective way to plant the crop and get the best yields. Growing the crop from cuttings or crowns enhances vegetative growth and achieves better yields. Read through this article to understand the stepwise guidelines on ‘how to grow asparagus from cuttings?’
Step One – Procure the Cuttings or Crowns
Most farmers prefer propagating the crop using cuttings, as the seeds become very finicky to germinate and grow. Therefore, you can propagate the asparagus using cuttings or crowns instead of buying the seeds. These cuttings resemble a strange sea creature as they’ve got tentacles and heads. The head is the most important part of the cutting where the plant’s spears sprout as the plant germinates.
You can find the appropriate cuttings or crowns at the local garden centers. Experts advise that you purchase them in the early spring, after most gardens or grounds thaw. However, if you can’t get the crowns or cut before they sprout, it’ll be a better alternative to purchase them from the different certified nurseries or online vendors.
Getting the cuttings involves digging up the plant’s roots during the late fall or immediately after the ferns have dried. After digging the roots, cut them into several pieces, ensuring that each part has a huge network of healthy roots. You plant them or store them as you wait for the right conditions. Experts advise you to store them in a paper bag or mesh having sawdust to prevent damaging them.
Step Two: Prepare the Garden
When growing the crop, ensure that you get the conditions right for them to germinate well and thrive. Asparagus requires non-acidic soil, well-drained, and fertile soil to grow well. In addition, when preparing the garden, you’ll need to incorporate some soil amendments, like organic manure, into the soil to enhance the garden’s long-term fertility.
When preparing the garden or soil, remove all the existing vegetation like roots or leaves in the planting area. Then loosen the soils approximately to a six or 8-inch depth using a digging fork or tiller. Asparagus requires fertile soil; thus, you can enhance this by adding and spreading compost manure on the garden soil where you want to plant your crop. Importantly, these plants require a neutral PH, so if the soil is slightly acidic, you can use sufficient lime to bring it down.
Step Three: Prepare the Garden for Planting
You can now prepare the garden for planting after achieving all the favorable garden conditions for growing your plants. The preparation involves digging a trench for planting your asparagus cuttings or crowns. Significantly, the trenches must be 12 inches deep and wide to allow any size of the asparagus cuttings to germinate well.
In addition, when digging the trenches, it’ll be appropriate to maintain them at least two feet apart to allow more plants in your garden. After digging the trenches, ensure that you’ve got a full wheelbarrow with the same compost manure proportions and excavated soil for every eight-foot row space. Depending on your garden size, you can also add a few cups of organic fertilizer or greensand to boost the growth of your crop.
Step Four: Plant your Crowns
You can now plant your crop after weeding the ground and mixing the manure and fertilizer with the garden. It’ll be imperative to spread the wheelbarrow’s content evenly along the planting trench. Before planting, form 6 inch tall and 18 inch wide conical molds along the trench using the amendment and soil mixture.
Place the cuttings on top of the ridge or mound. It’ll be good to have the roots splayed in different directions and the new shoots or growing points having an uppermost position when placing them. You’ll need to be very watchful when handling and spreading the roots, as most of them are delicate and tend to break easily.
After placing the cuttings on the ground, cover them with approximately two inches of soil. Before covering the cuttings with the soil, ensure that you mix it with organic matter and allow the bud’s tips on top and be visible. Experts advise that you choose a clean garden for growing your cuttings, as reusing the land or garden will hinder germination and proper crop growth.
Step Five: Continue Watering and Filling the Trenches
After germinating and continuous growth, it’ll be important to continue watering and filling the asparagus. Then, after watering the crowns or cutting heavily, you’ll use garden compost or well-rotted manure for mulching them, as it aids in suppressing weeds at the early stages. Experts also advise on the continuous filling of the trenches with the remaining mixture of excavated soil and compost or organic fertilizer.
Additionally, to enhance the best growing conditions, it’s good to keep the bed or garden land moist to support the growth of your crop. Nevertheless, it’ll be good to avoid soggy or waterlogged soils when keeping the soil moist during the first growing season. After planting, your crops will be ready after at least one year, but as the years move your harvesting rate increases.
It’ll be vital to allow the stalks to grow tall and vegetatively when growing the crops. Most of them will unfurl into a foliage canopy, average three or four feet in the early summer. This growth is essential to maintain a robust rooting system, which allows them to grow into larger spears in the following years.
How to Grow Asparagus from Cuttings?: Conclusion
Most individuals propagate or grow their asparagus using the cutting or crown. Unlike using seeds, this propagative mechanism is easy and allows faster germination and growth of your crops. However, with the numerous things and conditions to consider, most individuals have found it challenging to grow asparagus from cuttings appropriately. Nonetheless, the above provides a comprehensive guideline on how to grow asparagus from cuttings.
Related article: Asparagus Growth Stages: What to expect when growing asparagus