Best to dig and transplant crowns in the Fall after they go dormant. The ferns will dry and turn brown and can then be cut off at soil level. Have the new location ready to be planted and carefully dig all around the crown to get as much of the root ball as possible. No idea how old or large the crowns are so can't give you a distance to dig so use as big a diameter circle as possible around each. If too much damage to roots they won't recover. Then don't plan to harvest the first year after moving them.

Dave

There are You Tube videos on transplanting Asparagus...it can be done..if you have muscle!! LOL From the vid's I watched on You Tube...each one will give you several plants...but those roots are beasts!! Good Luck!

In the middle of the yard! I would say farewell to that asparagus and start new.

I've transplanted very few crowns although I have had hundreds of opportunities- under electric lines along road bank, under fruit trees in my orchard, under a grape arbor. It is usually a hassle to retrieve the crowns in good condition and the yard will be in shambles after the dig. Much easier to just start a new bed from either seed or crowns. Better still is that you will be able to select and therefore know what varieties you have. I'd remind your friend that by definition a weed is any plant that is growing where it is not wanted. If the yard is kept mowed the asparagus growing in it will eventually succumb and die.

My Dad spent most of his career working for Green Giant. 35 or so years ago they took over a field that had been previously planted with asparagus. They were just going to get rid of the stuff so he saw an opportunity to turn a small side field we had (maybe 50 x 200) into our own little asparagus patch. He tilled deep, ammended our soil etc. Then dug and brought home HUGE clumps of roots, planted them into our field and waited. We got a few spears, nothing like we were hoping for. To me it seemed like way too much work for little pay off.

I now have my own asparagus patch. 200 crowns planted myself from 3 year old roots. Great yield (I easily get 100 lbs a year) and not as much work as moving mature clumps. I picked up another 25 roots a couple weeks ago to replant a couple areas and extend my bed a bit.

My opinion, buy some roots you want (I recommend an all-male hybrid) plant them in a better spot and say goodbye to the ones in the middle, unless you plan on putting in a veggie garden around those.

When I was a younger person raised on a dairy farm my older brother plowed up an older asparagus bed next to a crop field and many crowns were monstrous. I recall the hours of work trying to replant salvageable crowns. It may be the primary reason why I was not fond of eating it until much later in life. I harvested about a hundred pounds this am and now I'm having bad thoughts about the crop again.