Planting Bare Root Asparagus
Asparagus is an ancient power house and deserves a place in your garden. Yes I know it makes your pee smell funny but hey, it makes everyones pee smell funny. So who cares? (Yep that’s right even if you didn’t think your pee smelled after eating asparagus, it does. You just lack the genetics to smell it.) Moving on from that discussion… Asparagus has been grown for over 2500 years and was a favorite in the Roman Empire. It is packed with nutrition. Vitamins A, C, E and K. It also contains iron and copper which helps with iron absorption and collagen production. It is also a prebiotic and high in fiber. But enough about how wonderful this PERENNIAL vegetable is. Yeah, that’s right, you plant it once and it only gets better each year. Let’s talk about how to plant it. My preference is to spring for buying the bare root asparagus over seeds. This will speed things up a bit as starting from seed takes about 3 years for your asparagus to produce veg for you. I have had good luck purchasing from Johnny Seed, Burpee and Urban Farmer. But I have also seen bare root asparagus at the home and garden store and even Farm and Fleet. You will not be moving these plants so make sure you pick an area that you feel comfortable dedicating to asparagus. I am growing mine in two of my raised beds. Asparagus prefer well draining soil with a relatively neutral pH. If you have clay soil I would amend your designated area before planting.
Bare root asparagus
This is what is looks like. It’s like a dried out squid. (Not really but imagine with me.) The crown at the top is the head and the roots are the tentacles. When you plant it, you want to dig a trench with a mound in the center for the crown to rest on so it can be flush with the soil surface and the roots can be covered. I prefer to use my hands to create a circle trench for each asparagus.
Creating a circle trench
Then rest the crown on the little mound at the center and fan the roots around.
Arranging the roots around the crown
After that just back fill over the roots making sure not to bury the crown.
Gently covering the roots with soil
Just planted bare root asparagus with crown just visible at soil surface
Asparagus roots can grow 20 feet deep and the asparagus themselves can grow up to 7 inches a day in warm weather. So be prepared for daily harvests once the weather is right. After I plant the bare roots, I water them and cover them with mulch. Mince are set up on my drip irrigation lines, but I will not drench them with water. The nice thing about perennials in your garden is that once established, you don’t have to water them as much or baby them as much as your annual vegetables. For a little better visual there is a video linked down below. Happy planting!
