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Asparagus plants are obtainable in a
number of strains from good nurseries and are best plants as year old
crowns. Allow eighteen inches between them in single rows four feet
apart when deciding how many to order for March delivery. For early
cutting they need soil sun-warmed; choose a sunny and sheltered place
and dig it several times to remove all perennial weed roots. Then dig
again to turn under a good barrow load of manure to every three square
yards and leave the surface rough through the winter.
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Next February scatter 4 oz. of fish meal
and 8 oz. of wood ashes to the square yard, dig again to get rid of
still-surviving weed roots and take out trenches six inches deep and
eight inches wide for the rows. In March set out the octopus-like
plants with eighteen inches between the middles and the roots spread
out. Put back three inches of soil worked and firmed between the roots
(with fingers, not feet) and leave the trench as a depression to hold
lain or watering if swum' is dry.
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Keep weeds hoed, never going deeper than
two inches, and use the space between rows for radish and lettuce in
the first season when the plants grow only ferny foliage. Cut this down
in November and clean up the weeds by forking not deeper than four
inches.
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When March comes again repeat the fish
meal and wood ashes, for asparagus is a seashore plant and enjoys the
salt, and dig a shallow `11' four inches deep and two feet wide between
the rows, to make the roots go deep in the middles instead of growing
awkwardly shallow. Heap the soil by the side of and not over the plants
to make another water-holding dip for a summer of fern-growing, raking
it back to the middles at the November cut-down-and-clean. This time
cover the plants with a two inches thick, one foot wide strip of good
manure.
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After fish meal again in the following
March, heap the soil from between the rows four inches high in ridges
over the plants. When the shoots are five to six inches above ground,
cut them four inches below the surface, scraping away and replacing the
ridge soil. Leave the fern to grow after five weeks' cutting this first
season, and after eight weeks' cutting in others, always finishing
before 21st June to allow next year's crop to grow.
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Every autumn fork the ridges back to the
middles to give covering soil, replacing with a coating of manure,
ideally deep litter to supply the phosphorus asparagus loves, and
because it will be weed-free. This can replace the fish meal which is
needed as a quick feed for its early years, and can be replaced with
spent mushroom compost every third season to avoid over-feeding.
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Cutting the fern down in November to
compost removes any eggs of the asparagus beetle, the only pest. The
grubs are dirty-grey and hump-backed and will be found eating the
shoots from May till the autumn, pupating in the bed, and hatching into
about four generations a season. Spray with a derris-pyrethrum mixture
while you are cutting the shoots for eating, and afterwards use
nicotine.
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Those who wish to raise their own
asparagus from seed can buy `Connover's Colossal' easily; it is a
mixture widely varying in productivity like all seedling strains. Sow
it thinly in furrows an inch deep and a foot apart in April, thinning
the seedlings to nine inches between plants. Let them stay until the
third spring after sowing and pick the shortest and most thickset
plants, because these will grow the most shoots for cutting.
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An asparagus bed is a permanent garden
feature providing a luxury for those who like it. It is not a source of
food and vitamins to compare with so many other vegetables needing less
room and making less work.