propogating asparagus

[richard p]

ive just been looking at the things to do in march on http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/ amongst other things it says propogate asparagus... has anybody tried this, ive not heard of it before, thought it was usually grown from seed.
similarly how do you propagate jerusalem artichokes and onions .

[Beryl]

I don't know about asparagus, I would have thought it best to buy new crowns or try from seed. Same with onions, buy fresh seed or sets.
J. Artichokes will grow very easily from any that have been left in the ground from a previous crop or even peelings on the compost heap will grow. In fact they can be very hard to get rid of once you have had them.

Beryl.

[Johnboy]

Hi Richard,
As far as I am aware the only way to propagate Asparagus is by seed. Seeds are generally sown in May and they grown on for a year and then transplanted into the bed you will have prepared for them as they are maturing.
Onions can be propagated by using the scale method but unless you are trying to bulk up a particular onion the best way is by seed. If you wanted to bulk up on an F1 hybrid Onion you could do so by scaling as it is not possible to replicate by seed and get a true progeny. If you are unfamiliar with the scale method it is generally applied to Lilies and if you look up Lily scaling then you do exactly the same for Onions. It is quite an involved process and takes quite a long time.
Jerusalem Artichokes can be propagated by seed or by simply growing a single Artichoke and letting it grow.
There are many things you can do to replicate plant forms but quite honestly unless like the case of an F1 Onion the best way out is to grow from seed.
JB.

[mandylew]

If you actually read the detail they give under that heading it describes growing from seed, planting out crowns thus grown the next year and harvesting in year three, at least thats all i can find it says, nothing else!

[Stephen]

Planting asparagus crowns:-
I have read the books which all talk about a long trench for crowns and give a spacing along the trench of 18" and a larger spacing between treches.

Part of my allotment has beds, which I made about 3ft wide (so that you can reach most of the way across). So if I use some one of these it is too narrow for two trenches but rather generous for a single line.

I was wondering if there was sense in planting the crowns in an alternately spaced twin row arrangement (sort of W formation) with 20" (for example) between crowns.

My objective being just to make best use of the ground available.

Any advice is welcome.

[Beryl]

No reason why you shouldn't grow them in your beds.
Just remember they are going to be there for a very long time so give each crown adequate space to spread their roots. I grow mine in a raised bed with 5 x 3 plants. I add a good layer of compost in the Autumn and other than hand weeding they look after themselves.

Beryl.

[Stephen]

Hi Beryl
I want to put them in the beds because they will be there for a long time. However, my question is more about spacing.
The other part of the plot is "open field" and so more flexible in use.

[alan refail]

Stephen

Planting in quincunx is a traditional way of planting to maximise use of space.
Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincunx

[Beryl]

Asparagus is shallow rooted but they spread out and after several years become a solid mass of roots. Allow a good 18" to 2ft between plants.
If your beds are 3 ft wide then I would only plant as one row down the centre. The choice is up to you in the end.

Beryl.

[Stephen]

HI Alan
That is how I was thinking, it seemed perfectly logical to me.
Beryl
Thanks for the info on spacing, I'll make some markers from old cardboard.

[Mike Vogel]

HI Stephen. One of the advantages of raised beds is that you can space things a bit closer than in the traditional methods. However, I think you can get two traditional rows in your bed by planting about 6 inches in from either side, which gives you 2 feet between rows. If my calculations are right, you will get 8 plants in the same area as 7 in quincunx formation, assuming you want to keep 18" between plants.

mike

[Stephen]

Thanks Mike
I do use the "half-space to the edge" then full space between rows approach with other things but as asparagus is a long term crop I just wanted to make sure.