I too have been trying to find the "right" answer to the spacing question. Anyone with real-life raised-bed asparagus experience care to chime in on this one?

I grow my asparagus in 2x2 boxes, 12 inches high, 4 plants per box. My plants did very well last year and the plants are already producing this year. I'm very happy with this spacing.

I've installed ~ 1/2 dz beds for myself, friends and clients, and the closer the spacing, the sooner the crowding. Some catalogs state min 8" spacing, others 12". The real issue is whether you want to wait another year for full coverage. They'll fill in all the space eventually, and why rush the work of root/plant thinning? You don't really get more in the long run with more crowns planted. You just get filled space sooner.

Dan

Thanks, Dan.

Although I originally stated I would be planting Jersey Knight, the phone rep at Nourse suggested I go with Jersey Supreme instead.

With Jersey Supreme being one of the heavier producers, what spacing would you recommend in a 4' X 4' bed?

When I asked Nourse, I was told they recommend planting in rows.

As far as how many plants per person (two people), any recommendations?

At this point, I envision just enjoying it a few times each season---fresh---and not really going overboard. I fear that allocating a second bed to a heavy bearer in an attempt to utilize the 25 plant bundle from Nourse could leave me swamped in asparagus. But then, what do I know---that's why I'm asking :-)

Thanks,Kath

Just curious, how old is the asparagus bed and what variety did you plant?

I'm not sure of the variety because my neighbor gave me the plants. This is the third year. Dan has a good point about thinning the roots/plants but I don't know enough about when to do that. Mel's website suggests 1 per sqf and if you can afford it, four per sqf.

It depends, plympton, how much you eat, but most folks are fine with ~10-12 crowns per person. I like a little more, & you can always give it away to a very appreciative recipient. The last one I put in for friends - 3 in house all eat asparagus - IIRC we put in 45 crowns and they are pretty happy with the yield & their families all seem to know when harvest time is.

When you plant in rows it is easier to pile up the compost as the crowns grow, side-dress, etc. Not really sure about the small box thing, but I'd probably make 3 rows of 4 each so you don't get crowding on the sides (with 4 rows) and have to divide earlier, but if you don't mind the extra work you could do 4 rows.

Dan

I spoke with a self-proclaimed old-timer who suggested that an 18" spacing in all directions would probably be best. He had planted his block similarly and it was growing well. The rub is that he has a Washington strain planted, so the bed had filled in from seeding, along with crown spread. If you have an all-male garden, I presume that it will take longer to fill-in than one that drops seeds.

Some web literature says that the new all-male hybrids can out-yield the older varieties by three to one! Yet not one mentions what variety they are referring to when they talk about yields. Based on that missing kernel of information, you could end up with one third to three times the amount of asparagus that you want!

I did come across an interesting tid-bit somewhere about extending the season, but I don't recall where. It said to harvest most of your bed as per the usual procedure, but let a portion fern out right away. Then, later when the regular harvest is done, you can cut all the ferns on the "late-harvest" section which would then send up new spears that you could harvest in say, July. I don't know if it is true or good to do, but if you ultimately find that you over-planted for your needs, you could try it out.

For me, I have a 4 foot wide bed across the whole width of my garden that I dug and enriched in the fall. Now I just need to decide how much to plant. I am leaning towards planting three rows, 12" apart in all directions. So I would thus be planting where the grid intersections would be, rather than in the middle of the squares. That would give a full 12" to the outside edges of the box for spreading and winter protection.

Someone else that I read suggested giving more like two square feet per plant, so I have also considered just planting two rows down the length of the box.

I am beginning to get the feeling that there is no "completely right" answer, or if there is, I won't know for three or four years!

I will be planting Guelph Millennium, a nice high-yielding all-male hybrid, developed close to home!

Thanks everyone. I think this would be easier for me to conceptualize if I knew how the plant grew.

Do the plants only grow stalks from the crown---and the crown gets larger with time?

Or, do the asparagus roots send up stalks as well?

In other words, when the bed fills in, will there be stalks popping up all over the bed---or just from the crown?

When it comes time to thin, does one cut crowns into pieces, like a perennial, and re-plant the vigorous chunks or will the bed be filled with daughter plants, like strawberries, which would be thinned out?