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4.5
Bought the seeds to fill in a secondary bed of our Jersey Knight. Our old Washington bed of over 40 years just got run over with hay this summer. These grew like wildfire. It should be an excellent secondary bed. They covered the bed like a carpet.THAT DEPENDS ON A NUMBER OF FACTORS. Soil condition, moisture and weed control (most import to keep be weed free). We just planted two new asparagus beds one 4 foot by 24 feet with these Mary Washington seeds. The other bed with Jersey giant (90% male) roots a 10 foot by 12 foot bed. We make sure to water adequately. Mary Washington asparagus ar comparable to your store bought slightly larger than pinky sized. Generally any asparagus that are pinky sized or smaller are as a rule left to go to seed. Generally when the asparagus ultimately grow no larger tha pinky size it's time to let them go to seed to nourish the plants root system. Generally in the Northeast New York area this occurs around July fourth. Just about the time you harvest your garlic. The these asparagus seeds can be grown until the tip starts to spread (actually that's pushing it) and form a bushy plant which ultimately forms seeds replishing the bed with new plants. We started the Jersey Knight with roots which are quite expensive. You plant the about 4 to 6 inchers deep about 6 inches apart. They cost roughly $7 for 5 roots. We started the Mary Washington bed with these seeds. As you can see from the pictures both beds are really looking good. The Jersey Knight did give some much larger but still tender asparagus. All asparagus start thin and fatten up. That depends on what yoou're looking for. If you let them grow larger and taller they get woody and have to have lower portion shaved to make them tender and edible. The Mary Washington surprised me as it's finishig its second season and we just saw some pinky sized shoots. We've always loved Mary Washington asparagus and this bed will probably outlive me (I'm 87) and give great asparagus for the next forty or so years. (we planted them in the garden close to the house this time.) The Jersey Giant wil not reproduce the way Mary Washington plants do. Guess that's why our original bed lasted over forty years and would probably still be going strong if it wasn't overrun by a vigorous Timothy hay field. We are really looking for some fantastic yields from the Mary Washington seed bed next summer. This year, 2018 wasn't a very good year in the garden overall, but both of the new asparagus beds really did great.Enjoy, grampa JoePictures. 1.Jersey Giant second year root planted 7-18 1A. first Jersey Giant asparagus shoots in June 2018. 2. Mary Washington seed planted Spring 2017, picture taken 7-18 3. Jersey Giant root planted in 2017 asparagus shoots 1 year 2018 4. Jersey Giant root bed mulched with leaves fall 2017 5. Jersey Giant asparagus July 2018 6. Jersey Giant asparagus from garden 7-18 7. Jersey Giant roots in trench Spring 2017 8. Jersey Giant bed mulched fall 2017 9. Japanese cuke 10. Jersey Giant hunge but tender stalks 7-1811. Jersey Giant bed from roots 8-18 12. Mary Washington bed second year from these seeds above 7-2018
