12 inches between plants in the row and 60 inches between rows is all that is required.

Here is a link that might be useful: Win Free Garden Stuff

That's what I don't understand. How can they get by 12 inch spacing east-west, yet require 60 inch spacing north-south?

The reason is air circulation, gives the plants a chance to dry out so disease is less likely to get a foothold.

I just transplanted my asparagus seedlings 12 inches apart in 3 rows that are themselves 12 inches apart. I am a total newbie, but I find it hard to believe that my 3x8 foot bed will lack air circulation, particularly when the common east wind comes blowing along the rows... The square foot gardening guy says one plant per square foot works. I decided to give it a go.

Most spacing charts for vegetables are based on having to harvest said vegetables by mechanical means. These distances take into account how far they must be spaced to get a harvester down the row. I would say as a practical matter in a home garden you can certainly plant closer. Planting closer, however, can cause diseases to be more prevalent due to lack of air circulation. I did not follow normal spacing guidelines for my vegetables last year, in fact I crammed stuff in my small space. I had a minor infestation of whiteflys and aphids but it wasn't really enough to make a difference in my yield.

In small gardens you can get away with closer spacing, my brother plants his in a ten by ten foot square one foot apart in each direction and they do fine ; but his yield suffers because of disease.
Ken

What kinds of disease does your brother get, Ken? I'm thinking of putting in an asparagus bed this year and would like to space them as close as possible, so any info I can get on pitfalls would be great.

My brothers asparagus has some kind of rust, at least that's what it looked like when I last saw them; but then my brother is a very busy person and probably tends to neglect them. When I lived in Dallas OR my neighbor spaced his about 4 ft apart and had very healthy plants also my father used the same spacing with great results too, so I for one tend to go with what I know should work, but I also have the space for this. But if more TLC is given in small spacing, well...why not.

We have seven 150' rows with the crowns 12" aparat and the rows 5' apart. It's an inpenatrable jungle by mid-summer. Tom

My rows are 5 feet apart and by the end of summer the plants are only about 1 foot apart. The ferns get quite big. The reason you keep the ferns all summer is to allow the plants to get sunlight, planting them too close together will give you more shade on the interior plants. Also the crowns will get very big, to restrict them in all directions will restrict their growth. Additionally asparagus require a huge amount of nutrients, closer together will require more fertilizer in a small area.

The 5' row spacing is certainly well-documented at various sites, and chinamigarden's explanation is very helpful. For some of us, 5' between-row spacing is more space than we have, so I started searching for some confirmation that my tight 1'x1' spacing wasn't doomed to failure.

There are a number of sites and studies that accept row-spacing or 4' or even 3'. The British Royal Hort. Society suggests an even tighter spacing for asparagus:

"Place the crowns on top, spacing them 30-45cm (12-18in) apart (right). Leave 45cm (18in) between rows and stagger the plants.

Another British site (www.gardenorganic.org.uk) suggests 3-row beds, with 30cm (12in) between plants and rows, and 1.3m (4.5ft) between beds.

A 1997 New Zealand ag journal article by Bussell is titled "what is the correct density for transplanted green asparagus?" lists various studies, including one by Sanders & one by Williams & Kendall that includes 1'x1' spacing. It's hard to decipher, but these two studies seem to show that denser planting slightly helps yield. Comments from anyone who can actually interpret this paper are VERY welcome.

Anyway. I take from this that (1) 5' row spacing is the near-universal rule of thumb and (2) some seemingly knowledgeable voices outside the U.S. say narrower row spacing - down to at least 18" according to Roy. Hort. Soc., and maybe narrower, are OK.

Here is a link that might be useful: Royal Horticultural Society: Asparagus

Maybe someone over in the square foot gardening forum could help more with this. I'm sure many of them have tried close spacing.

I grow asparagus plants in the ground about a foot apart in three rows that are also about a foot apart. I've been happy with the yield over the last 15 years. You can not really see three rows anymore, it is just a bunch of random spears. We haven't had disease problems other than some beetles that don't cause enough trouble to worry me. And the patch is definitely thick when the summer fronds are growing....but I'm not needing to get in there then. No other tall crops are growing near them so air flow is adequate. I would not go more than 3 rows wide though. Just my opinion.

How about planting asparagus in a 5x6 raised bed? WOuld 10 crowns be OK?