For those who do not know how to grow asparagus from seeds, the article will help to understand the intricacies of this matter and the features of caring for a vegetable crop. To begin with, asparagus is incredibly popular in Europe, America and southeast Asia. The spicy taste of dishes prepared by cooks from long tender stems is familiar to those who visited it. Now, many lovers of an appetizing dietary vegetable have appeared in our country, which means those who would like to grow it independently in their own garden. By the way, asparagus quickly adapted to our climate, and breeders can boast of excellent domestic varieties.
Benefit
For food use young, slightly underdeveloped stalks, pods, which are tasty not only in boiled and baked form, but even freshly cut when they are juicy and crispy. It seems strange that once in our country asparagus was used only as an element of design decoration of flower bouquets. Only sometimes in pre-revolutionary Russia exotic dishes from it were served on the master's table.
Vegetable is famous not only for taste and dietary qualities. It contains a whole list of vitamins, including group B, as well as many useful trace elements and the amino acid asparagine. The use of asparagus dilates peripheral blood vessels, normalizes the pressure and work of the heart muscle; favorably affects the liver tissue. In addition, long, juicy stems of any kind are indicated for diabetes, gout, and kidney disease. That is why many people wonder: how to grow asparagus from seeds at home?
And the demand for green vegetables is largely determined by the fact that it sprouts in the early spring, when the body is deficient in vitamins, and fresh herbs have not yet gone.
Growing Stages
Certain difficulties of self-cultivation suggest that it is possible and how to grow asparagus from seeds. The advice of gardeners lies primarily in the fact that it is necessary to collect the vegetable daily, avoiding the rearrangement of young shoots. Further, a large amount of special top dressing and organic fertilizers will be required for the entire season.
Third tip: you should stock up on top-notch seeds in advance. The fact is that asparagus does not divide from the roots, and mature specimens do not take root after transplantation. The only option remains - growing a crop from seeds. Interestingly, this perennial plant is considered seedlings for a very long time - two to three years. In order to learn how to grow asparagus from seeds in a country house or garden according to all the rules and with a good result, you should separate the garden, cleaned from weeds and fertilized with organics, for planting crops.
Planted seeds are planted in June, and the garden is loosened and watered throughout the summer. When the seedlings appear, fertilizing with ammonium nitrate is carried out at the rate of 10 grams of solution per square meter of land. Repeated feeding is carried out after 3 weeks. The year after the winter, the plant blooms.
Perennial and perennial plant
Before answering the question of how to grow asparagus from seeds, you need to learn at least a little about the culture itself. Asparagus is a fairly large perennial plant, which can reach a height of about two meters. Although she does not have leaves, the long shoots are very branched, and the fibrous roots are huge.
The vegetable blossoms with inconspicuous flowers and has beautiful red fruits. Since asparagus is a dioecious plant, male and female flowers are present on different bushes. If you take care of it correctly, then you can get a crop from one copy for 15-20 or even more years, therefore, asparagus can rightly be considered a green centenarian.
And also, if you wondered about how to grow asparagus from seeds in the garden, it would be useful to know that this is a very resistant and hardy plant. Even with our frosts, you can not cover it for the winter and do not prune if you do not have time on time. Subject to the remaining rules, the crop will be provided.
Asparagus Growing Conditions
If you decide to raise asparagus for decorative purposes, then just plant it, and it grows by itself. But the cultivation of tender shoots for eating is different, therefore, it is necessary to create special conditions for the plant. Namely:
- A loose, fertilized soil is needed. Well, if on your site it is sandy loam. With a lack of nutrients, asparagus stalks will grow thin and coarse fiber.
- In no case should the soil be acidic, otherwise the plant will not take root.
- The key to a good and tasty crop is plentiful watering; with a lack of moisture, the asparagus will be hard and bitter in taste. But she does not like the proximity of groundwater.
- Planting beds should be located in a sunny place, although a small shadow will not harm the plants too much.
- Annual mulching will ensure the active growth of juicy shoots.
In order to learn how to grow asparagus from seeds, it is necessary to take into account that the roots of this vegetable grow greatly and lie almost at the surface of the soil. Every year they grow from above, and the lower parts die off, so gradually the bush together with the root system rises higher to the surface. That is why there is a need for annual mulching, that is, covering the soil at the roots, which prevents drying out, overheating and hypothermia of plants.
About Asparagus Seeds and Proper Planting
Asparagus seeds are large, black, in a protective shell. Before use (usually for planting in the garden this is the beginning of June) they are soaked for three days in a solution of manganese, changing it several times, or in ordinary water, also periodically replacing it with fresh. This procedure will accelerate the emergence of seedlings. After that, the seeds are laid out on a wet rag until germination. It takes about one week.
So, how to grow asparagus from seeds? The photo shows the option of early seed germination at home, when each seed is planted in a separate pot. This is best done in April-May. If you sow immediately on the beds, then to get a good crop, the germinated seeds are laid to a depth of 3 cm in the ground, placing them 5 cm apart in a row.
Between the rows withstand a distance of at least 20 centimeters, otherwise it will be inconvenient to thin out elongated seedlings. And this must be done immediately after the appearance of the first sprouts, since the roots of asparagus grow quickly, and it is impossible to get them out of the soil without damaging the neighbors.
Asparagus shoot care
Care for young shoots of asparagus is traditional for most vegetable crops - this is feeding, weeding, watering and loosening the earth. At the time of emergence, they are fed with ammonium nitrate, and 3 weeks after that they are fertilized with liquid manure.
Already in September, in the first year of life, seedlings have 2-3 stems. Peat and compost will be a great mulch for the plant for the winter. And gardeners have enough time to prepare permanent beds for transplanting asparagus.
Preparing a permanent bed
Preparation of a permanent bed for asparagus is carried out in several stages. Autumn digging should be deep enough - 35 centimeters, and spring digging is accompanied by the introduction of manure (per 1 sq. M - 10 kg of fertilizer). Mineral compounds can be applied in the fall, or immediately before planting seeds. In this case, for 1 square meter of soil you will need: 3 g of potassium salt, 2 g of ammonium sulfate, 5 g of superphosphate. Ready-made complex fertilizers can be used.
Planting seedlings on a permanent bed
How to grow asparagus from seeds, you already know. And how do seedlings are planted on permanent beds? For this, furrows are made in the soil about 40 centimeters in width and depth, observing the distance between them a meter and a half. At the bottom lay a layer of rotted manure and a humus roller 5-7 centimeters thick, on which seedlings are placed. It is important to straighten the branchy roots so that they do not bulge up.
The distance between individual seedlings should be at least 40 centimeters. In the process of asparagus growth, the furrow will be leveled by adding soil from the edges. In addition to summer feeding in September, when the growing season ends , plants will need potassium and phosphorus. Every 5 years the soil is fertilized with organic matter, for example, rotted manure. Mulching is carried out for the winter, after trimming the stems.
Harvesting
Knowing how to grow asparagus from the seeds of a house on a personal plot, now you need to find out when you can harvest it. Start cutting shoots for the 2nd year; moreover, white shoots that have reached the surface of the covering layer are considered ready, and green shoots have grown by 15-18 centimeters.
The very first harvest lasts 2-3 weeks, and then the vegetable is harvested a month and a half every day. Fresh asparagus can be stored for several weeks in a refrigerator in plastic bags.
In general, knowing the simple rules, you can independently grow various varieties of juicy asparagus. By the way, it was noticed that female plants give thick and tender shoots, and male plants give a plentiful harvest.