One of the most popular varieties of asparagus is Jersey Knight. This green delicacy produces abundant stalks for a plentiful supply of this favorite spring vegetable.
Jersey Knight is a male hybrid, and, in the asparagus world, the males are more productive than the females since the females handle seed and berry production and end up producing fewer spears than the males.
It’s also one of the hardiest varieties available, and it’s disease resistant. Jersey Knight is an all-male hybrid that will double production of older cultivars. It tolerates heavier soils better, too. It’s one of the Jersey hybrids that produce stalks a week earlier than other varieties
Harvest begins in the spring, depending on the area where you live. In upstate New York, for instance, you can usually begin harvesting asparagus in the middle or end of April. And if you haven’t tried it, freshly picked asparagus is a treat unlike anything you can buy in the store that’s even a day or two old.
When you plant one-year-old crowns, don’t touch the plants the next year. During the year after planting, spears emerge in May, looking similar to what you can find in the store. Don't touch them. Those roots need another year of energy to provide ample harvests down the road. Pick them now and you will greatly weaken the plant. Again, they will form the fernlike stalks that last through the fall.
During the second year after planting, you can harvest lightly, but hold off until the third year after planting to reap a full crop so that you don’t compromise the plant’s overall vigor. If you delay harvesting young plants you’ll allow roots time to build up sufficient reserves. Those reserves are apparent once you see spears as thick as your finger. Even when a plant is old enough to be harvested yearly, it needs time to build up sufficient stores of energy by winter. To allow this to happen, simply stop harvesting after two and half months or sooner, once the stalks become pencil thin.
In the fall, cut the fernlike stalks to the ground by December and then wait for the new spears to emerge in the spring. It’s like magic.
You can grow asparagus even if you’re not a vegetable gardener. And even if you are, this beautiful plant doesn’t need to be limited to the vegetable patch. The ferny stems can provide a wispy lime-green background to flower patches or an airy foreground for glossy leaves of evergreens such as holly.
Another benefit of asparagus is that it holds little interest to deer, rabbits and other garden pests. It’s pretty much the perfect garden vegetable.
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