The Raising Of Plants
Asparagus can be propagated by division of the roots, but this method
gives so unsatisfactory results that it is rarely practiced. Raising the
plants from seed is therefore the only method worth considering. The
seed may be sown either in the fall or
spring. But far more important
than the time for sowing is the quality of the seed. While asparagus
seed retains its vitality for two or more years, it is not safe to use
seed older than one year. Fresh seed may be recognized by its glossy
black color and uniform smooth surface, while old seed has a smutty gray
color and its surface is generally rough and wrinkled. Yet even with
this as a guide it is not easy to distinguish bad from good seed, and
still more difficult, if not impossible, is it to distinguish the seed
of different varieties. It is therefore advisable to procure seed only
from dealers of undoubted reliability and pay a fair price for it rather
than to accept poor seed as a gift. A uniformity of the individual
plants in the asparagus bed or field is a matter of prime importance;
only large, fully developed seeds should be used, screening out and
rejecting all small and inferior ones.
In northern latitudes spring sowing is preferable to fall sowing. The
ground of the seed-bed should be well drained and fairly retentive of
moisture. As soon as the soil admits of working it should be well
pulverized and enriched with decomposed manure. On a small scale a
spading-fork is the best implement for preparing soil for nursery rows
of asparagus plants.
Straight lines should be marked about fifteen inches apart and drills
made about an inch deep when the sowing is done very early in the
season, and one-half to one inch deeper when the sowing is done later.
In these drills the seed should be dropped two or three inches apart.
The covering may be made with a hoe, after which the soil should be well
pressed down with the foot. As the seed is slow to germinate--in from
four to six weeks, according to weather conditions--it is well to sow
with it a few radish seeds, which will soon appear and mark the lines of
the drills, so that cultivation may begin at once. Soaking the seed in
luke-warm water for twenty-four hours before sowing will hasten its
germination.
The cultivation of the young plants consists in keeping the soil about
them light, and free from grass and weeds. Most of this work can be done
with a garden cultivator, or a hoe and rake or prong hoe, but some hand
weeding is generally necessary in addition. Strict attention to this
will save a year in time, for if the seed-bed has been neglected, it
will take two years to get the plants as large as they should be in one
year if they had been properly cared for. In consequence of this very
frequent neglect of proper cultivation of the seed-bed, it is a common
impression that the plants must be two years old before transplanting.
One pound of seed will produce about 10,000 plants, but as many of these
will have to be thinned out and poor ones rejected, it is not safe to
count upon more than one-half of this number of good plants. The number
of plants required for an acre varies according to the manner of
planting. If planted in rows three feet apart and two feet in the rows,
it will require 7,260 plants per acre; if planted three by four, 3,630
per acre.
Previous: Seed Growing
Next: Sowing The Seed Where The Plants Are To Remain
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