asparagus and artichokes

[possum]

we inherited 5 asparagus crowns, fairly young ones, when we moved here.
how do you care for them - the local asparagus place is into full production, yet only two spears have appeared here.
Do they need horse manure over winter? what?

i have a tray od artichoke seedings, what do i do with them, when do i plant them out? how far apart? I have never grown artichokes before (excep jerusalem aartichokes)

[frozenthunderbolt]

not sure about the asparagus but allow the globe artichokes plenty of room - assume each buch will grow to 1.5 M in diamiter and will then produce pubs you can take off and grow.

Feed 'em well and figure on them having about a 3-5 year perenial life. dying back each winter then growing again. about the 3rd year as a big plant steal some pups or else plant collected seed to keep them happening.

artichokes globes are spikey (to varying degrees) so watch out when picking them.

[farmerdrea]

The artichokes will also benefit from protection from the wind (not sure how you are situated from southerlies and norwesters, but we have them fierce in Oxford, so I planted my artichokes outside the house). I LOVE artichokes. I have 8 plants all to myself because my family doesn't like them.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

[Millymollymandy]

My only experience with artichokes was them dying in the cold weather so we never got any to eat. I think they need a mild winter climate!

[farmerdrea]

I used to think they wouldn't handle the winters here (months at a time of heavy frosts or freezes, from June till Sept), but the artichokes dies back in the autumn and comes back at the end of winter. I just mulch heavily with straw. They are quite hardy. I have the Green Globe and Purple de Jesi varieties. The Purple de Jesi is superior in flavour and production, but I grew up eating the green ones, so still like both.

Cheers
Andrea
Oxford

[Cheezy]

we inherited 5 asparagus crowns, fairly young ones, when we moved here.
how do you care for them - the local asparagus place is into full production, yet only two spears have appeared here.
Do they need horse manure over winter? what?

Asparagus likes well drained slightly salty soil (though it's not necessary).
You should not pick the stalks for the first two years, let them go yellow then cut down.
A good mulch of manure will help over winter. One of the main things is they hate having their roots disturbed when young. You should keep them well mulched to prevent weeds taking over. If you do get weeds make sure you don't go in with a trowel, hand pick them out to avoid damaging the roots. I think some of mine have been killed off in the floods we had earlier in the summer, since I thought I was being clever and putting weed suppresant at the bottom of my bed to prevent all the couch grass and maretail coming up...of course it prevents the water draning as quick as well. Ahhh well we'll see next year.

[possum]

Thanks for the info, i had no idea that artichokes were anything other than annuals, and i had been going to plant them about 6 inches apart just glad they are still in their seed tray - anyone want any seedlings?, every last one of them seems to have taken, so i have about 100

asparagus, hmm, it like slightly salty soil, that would explain why I pass a grower on the way to town - the local lake is slightly brackish. We are just 500m from the see, so maybe there is some salt in the air. It has just started sprouting now, but thanks for the tips about not weeding with a trowel, i will have to keep on top of the weeds so they don't get big enough to need a trowel.

[the.fee.fairy]

I've got asparagus in the garden. it must be nearly 20 years old!! (i planted it to get my Brownie Gardening Badge). It had died back, but this year i manured the soil in November/December and left some on top. Come spring, there were a few asparagus spears poking through, so based on that, i'd say a good layer of manure isin order!

[rag_grrl_nz]

I've only just had two spears poke their heads up so far this year. One thing I know is they hate weeds.

[the.fee.fairy]

Maybe that's why mine has come back - the manure stopped the weeds coming through because it wasn't fully rotted and it cut out light (that's just a guess though...).