I was going to chime in with straw but...

Are you sure you got straw and not hay? You can get weed free straw, the kind used for seeding lawns. Hay is full of weed seeds.

I wouldn't use wood chips since that mulch would seriously deplete available nitrogen for the asparagus. I know the crowns are deep down, but asparagus does require nutrients. I use a light shredded-leaf mulch and I feed the plants. I can get in there and do some weeding if needed. I wonder if it would be OK to have clover as a mulch, or would that compete too much?

Clover is a good idea. I was thinking of a mow strip in between my rows.. Then wood chips come to mind.. The straw I get is wheat straw.. Would love to have straw of oats, but thats ironic for this area.

I use pine straw here. Lots of it available in my yard.

Wood chips are best, simply because you need to mulch every two years. Straw and pine straw last one year, and grass clippings last two months. Straw is full of seeds. It is not true that wood chips as mulch deplete N, specially at depth. They will acidify things, which is not good for asparagus, but not as much as pine straw. I use wood chips, and add wood ash to help the pH and urea to fertilize during the dormant season.

Wood chips mixed into the ground would deplete N, but not on top of the soil.

I agree about the wood chips ~ so long as you don't till them in, they'll be fine. If you're organic, you can fertilize with manure tea (ie compost tea made with composted manure instead of regular compost) or fish emulsion to get the N needed without having to disturb the mulch.

this is my second year and year to cut/eat asparagus. The chickweed was starting to take over so I used mulched leaves in a thick layer for mulch. I hope this works.

4' of salt water for over 24 hours didn't do a thing to the asparagus bed in our community garden. Didn't stop a single weed either. I'm going next week to pull weeds.
Tally HO!

Agreed with the wood chips. Any sign of N deficiency you can correct easily. I'm trying to get approval from the MIL for a bed that will have asparagus and will put in wood chips for mulch.

Dan

lacyveil, tell me more about the rock salt. Do you sprinkle it? How much for a 4X24 bed each year? When to apply? I find this very interesting and will consider trying it.

This is the email I recieved from my mulch vendor, Keep in mind I do Landscape work as a profession.
Checked on the effect sof step will have on asparagus plants, if you are merely putting a walking path next to the plants to make it easier to wall thru them
The sof step will have no effect on your plants whatsoever. But if you place it directly on the planting, it will rob it of a certain amount of nitrogen in the initial decomposing stages, then it will put nutrients back into the soil as it does decompose. Sof step is a natural virgin wood product, it does decompose much slower than regular mulch.

Yes salt will help to control weeds, and yes asparagus is salt tolerant, BUT in the long term salt is not good for your soil. Think about trees and grass growing along salted roadways and sidewalks. Mulch is a much better option. My personal preference is for straw or shredded leaves. Yes I have to replenish it more frequently but I don't mind as I like that I'm adding organics to the soil. Wood chips do as well, my reason for not using woodchips is simply because I use so much of it around trees and shrubs and I never have enough.

I use about 3/4 lb of rock salt for about 27 feet of 18 inch wide bed. I have very sandy soil, so I suspect it washes out fairly fast. In heavier soil, you might want to use less.

"But if you place it directly on the planting, it will rob it of a certain amount of nitrogen in the initial decomposing stages, then it will put nutrients back into the soil as it does decompose." Yes, it will tie up "a certain amount of nitrogen", but only in the top few inches of soil. Relatively speaking, that means that "certain amount of nitrogen" isn't much ~ again, only in the top few inches of soil. The majority of roots are much deeper than that.

Think about this: If wood chips/bark/etc. used as mulch tied up a good portion of the nitrogen in the soil, enough to really affect plant growth negatively, no one would ever use it to mulch anything. Yet it's widely used with no ill effect. Quite the contrary, if there are any ill effects, they are far outweighed by the benefits.

But, if you're really nervous about using it, I wouldn't. Gardening is supposed to be a relaxing pastime, not a cause for more worry. :)

Yes, with roots going down to 12 ft, two inches of depletion means nothing. And, overall wood chips add nitrogen, because their bacterial decomposition proceeds through nitrogen fixation.

Check with your local bulk supplier of mulch to see if they sell compost (lots of cities now sell composted yard waste as part of their recycling efforts). I use compost on my entire garden as mulch. That way when the season is over , I simply turn it into my soil, of course the aspargus patch does not get turned but the compost still improves my soil.

When you see where the spears are coming up, lay several sheets of newspaper between them. Cover that with about an inch of old bark mulch.

The bark mulch will break down slowly and not affect the soil below because of the newspaper. It will all break down by Fall and settle into the soil gradually.

Forget the mulched leaves since chickweed came up right through it. Now for the bark mulch.

I use 2 weed controls. First, in January, I cut off the ferns and cover the bed with black plastic until the first spear emerges.

After I stop harvesting, I put down a few thicknesses of newspaper between the plants and add 2 inches of composted shredded mulch.

Think about this: If wood chips/bark/etc. used as mulch tied up a good portion of the nitrogen in the soil, enough to really affect plant growth negatively, no one would ever use it to mulch anything.

No.

N is tied up for the period of time the decomposers use available soil N to do their metabolic processes. After that, N is free in the soil. Any fine asparagus roots near the surface would be unable to absorb N.

Nonetheless, yardenman has an excellent technique.

Dan

The absolute BEST mulch to use is cocoa shell mulch. Approximately 2 - 3 inches will keep most weeds down, and there's no ill effect upon the soil. Lasts for a couple of years before it needs refreshing. The serious down side is that this stuff can be VERY poisonous to dogs, who are attracted by it's chocolatey fragrance. So I wouldn't use it unless you have a jump proof fence around your garden.
Cocoa shell is somewhat available in the MD/PA areas, as a by product of Hershey's chocolate making process in PA. Not sure about other areas.

The couple of times I used leaves, I ended up with asparagus beetles. I'm going to try the salt and wood chips this year. I also think I lost some to the drought, so I may have to replant. Nancy

I think the beetles will overwinter in any mulch, possibly even the soil. Although I had cleaned up the beds in autumn and replenished with fresh mulch this spring, I just sent quite a few to a soapy bath today ... They don't seem to have liked it much. Removed eggs and sent them to the bath, too.

Go to a coffee stand and ask if they will give you coffee grounds. Use about 3 inches on top of the wood chips. They will add nitrogen so the wood chips will not hurt and will help prevent weeds

Re rock salt in asparagus patch. Yes, it does help control weeds but when I used in at our (rural) asparagus patch, I created a "salt lick" for every deer in the county!

Asparagus beetles hibernate in asparagus stalks! I read that this year and checked some of my old stalks (which I had left in place to mark where the plants are). Sure enough, I found some beetles hiding in them. I think I will remove them all this fall and burn them!

I like the salt idea. My asparagus bed has become a real mess with vetch, thistles, clover, etc., even though I mulched with bark chips. I spent hours weeding it this summer and never managed to get all the roots out :(.