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.