Care During The First Year

The cultural work in the asparagus bed during the first year consists in

loosening the soil at frequent intervals, and especially as soon after

rain as the ground becomes dry enough for cultivation. Frequent and

thorough cultivation is necessary not only to keep down the weeds, but

also to prevent the formation of a crust on the soil after rain, and to

provide a mulch of loose earth for the retention of moisture. In field

culture the work is best done with a one-horse cultivator or a

wheel-hoe, and on a small scale with a scuffle-hoe and a rake. As the

sprouts grow up small quantities of fine soil should be drawn into the

trenches from time to time, but during the early part of the season

great care must be exercised not to cover the crowns too deeply.



Some growers advise to work the soil away instead of toward the plants,

considering the four inches of soil with which the roots are covered at

planting sufficient for the first year. While this may be true in a wet

or moderately moist summer, in a season of drouth the additional mulch

of mellow soil can not but be beneficial to the young and tender plants.

Especial care is required when working around the young sprouts, so as

not to cover, break, or in any way injure any of them.



In the garden bed it pays to stake the canes when they are but a foot

high, so as to prevent the wind from disturbing the stools in the soil

by swaying the shoots backward and forward. Careful gardeners insert

stakes for this purpose at the time of planting, before the roots are

covered with soil, so as to guard against the danger of injuring any of

them. The best material for this tying is raffia, or Cuban bast. In

field culture staking is usually not practicable, partly on account of

the cost, and also because where there are many plants growing close

together they furnish some mutual protection to one another. The same

end may also be accomplished--partly, at least--by throwing up a furrow

on each side of the rows of plants. Precautions of this kind are

important in localities exposed to high winds, as their neglect may

often cause greater loss than it would have cost to provide proper

protection.



Another important work in the asparagus bed during the first year is to

keep close and constant watch over the asparagus beetle, and at its

first appearance to apply the remedies recommended in the chapter on

injurious insects. Plants deprived of their foliage at this early stage

of their life have but a poor chance to recover from the loss.



If it is found that some of the plants have not started by the middle of

June, it is best to replace them with growing plants of the same age,

which should have been kept in a reserve bed for this purpose. If this

replanting is done carefully, so as not to mutilate any of the roots,

and on a cloudy day, it is best not to cut back the tops very severely.

Unless a copious rain sets in soon after planting, the roots have to be

heavily watered, after which they will keep on growing at once without

suffering any setback.



The formerly all but universal practice was to cover the roots with

manure after the stalks had been removed in the fall for fear of frost

injuring or killing the roots. In sections where winters are very severe

this may still be desirable, as may be seen from the statement of so

keen an observer as Professor J. C. Whitten, of the Missouri Experiment

Station: "Most writers advise applying dressing of old fine manure

during the growing season when the plants can use it. In our soil better

results are obtained by applying it in winter. It prevents the soil from

running together and hardening, and also prevents the sprouts from

coming through, as they otherwise often do, too early in spring, and

becoming weakened by subsequent severe freezing."



As the reverse of this plan, M. Godefroy-Leboeuf, the famous French

authority, recommends "to clear out of the trenches the soil which has

fallen into them from the sides of the mounds, and also remove from

above the stools a portion of that with which they were covered at the

time they were planted--say, to a depth of one and one-half inches--so

that the action of the frost may open the soil and that the rain may

penetrate and improve it; also that during the first fine days of spring

the sun may warm the surface of the soil and penetrate as far as the

stools. There is no fear that the action of the frost should hurt the

plants. Asparagus will never freeze as long as the stool is covered with

a layer of soil one and one-half to one and three-fourth inches in

depth."



If the rows are not less than four feet apart a crop of some other

vegetables may be raised between them. Beans, dwarf peas, lettuce,

beets, or any kinds which do not spread much, are suitable for the

purpose. These by-products will help considerably toward paying the cost

of cultivating the main crop, besides having a tendency to keep the soil

cool and moist, a condition of no little importance to the asparagus.