For those who do not know how to grow asparagus from seeds, the article will help you understand the intricacies of this business and the peculiarities of caring for vegetables. Let's start with the fact that asparagus is incredibly popular in Europe, America and Southeast Asia. Those who have been there are familiar with the piquant taste of dishes prepared by chefs from long tender stems. Now in our country there are many lovers of an appetizing dietary vegetable, and therefore those who would like to grow it on their own in their garden. By the way, asparagus quickly adapted to our climate, and breeders can boast of excellent domestic varieties.
Benefit
The food uses young, slightly underdeveloped stems-pods, which are tasty not only boiled and baked, but even freshly cut when they are juicy and crispy. It seems strange that once upon a timeIn our country, asparagus was used only as an element of the design 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 its 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 expands peripheral blood vessels, normalizes blood pressure and the work of the heart muscle; favorably affects the liver tissue. In addition, long juicy stems in any form are indicated for diabetes, gout and kidney disease. That is why many are wondering: how to grow asparagus from seeds at home?
And the demand for a green vegetable is largely determined by the fact that it sprouts in early spring, when the body is deficient in vitamins, and fresh greens have not yet gone.
Growing stages
Certain difficulties of self-growing suggest whether and how to grow asparagus from seeds. The advice of gardeners is, first of all, that it is necessary to collect a vegetable daily, avoiding rearranging young shoots. Further, a large amount of special top dressing and organic fertilizers will be required for the whole season.
Third tip: stock up on top quality seeds in advance. The fact is that asparagus is not divided from the roots, and mature specimens do not take root after transplantation. The only option left isgrowing crops from seeds. Interestingly, this perennial plant is considered a seedling for a very long time - two to three years. To learn how to grow asparagus from seeds in a country house or garden in accordance with all the rules and with a good result, you should separate a garden bed cleared of weeds and fertilized with organic matter for planting.
Planting of prepared seeds is carried out in June, and throughout the summer they loosen and water the bed. When shoots appear, ammonium nitrate is fertilized at the rate of 10 grams of solution per square meter of land. Re-feeding is carried out after 3 weeks. The next year after wintering, the plant blooms.
Perennial and resistant plant
Before answering the question of how to grow asparagus from seeds, you need to at least know a little about the culture itself. Asparagus is a fairly large perennial plant that can reach a height of about two meters. Although it has no leaves, the long shoots are very branched, and the fibrous roots are huge.
The vegetable blooms 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 properly care for it, then the harvest from one copy can be obtained for 15-20 or even more years, so asparagus can rightly be considered a green long-liver.
And also, if you wondered how to grow asparagus from seeds in the garden, it would be useful to know that this is a very resistant and hardy plant. Evenin our frosts, you can not cover it for the winter and not do pruning if you didn’t have time on time. Subject to other rules, the harvest will be ensured.
Asparagus growing conditions
If you decide to breed asparagus for decorative purposes, then just plant it, and it grows by itself. But growing tender shoots for food is different, so you need to create special conditions for the plant. Namely:
- Requires loose, fertilized soil. Well, if in your area it is sandy. With a lack of nutrients, asparagus stalks will grow thin and coarse.
- In no case should the soil be acidic, otherwise the plant will not take root.
- The key to a good and tasty harvest is abundant watering; lack of moisture, the asparagus will be tough and bitter in taste. But she does not like the proximity of groundwater either.
- The planting beds should be in a sunny position, although a little shade won't hurt the plants too much.
- Annual mulching will ensure active growth of succulent shoots.
To learn how to grow asparagus from seeds, you need to consider that the roots of this vegetable grow strongly 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 andplant hypothermia.
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 plain water, also periodically replacing it with fresh water. This procedure will speed up the emergence of seedlings. After that, the seeds are laid out on a wet cloth until germination. It takes about one week.
So how do you grow asparagus from seeds? The photo shows a variant of early germination of seeds 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 harvest, 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 maintain a distance of at least 20 centimeters, otherwise it will be inconvenient to thin out the elongated seedlings. And this must be done immediately after the first sprouts appear, since asparagus roots grow quickly, and it is impossible to pull them out of the soil without damaging their neighbors.
Asparagus shoot care
Caring for young shoots of asparagus is traditional for most vegetable crops - this is top dressing, weeding, watering and loosening the earth. At the time of germination, 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 greatmulch for the plant for the winter. And gardeners have enough time to prepare permanent beds for transplanting asparagus.
Preparing a permanent bed
Preparing a permanent bed for asparagus is carried out in several stages. Autumn digging should be deep enough - 35 centimeters, and spring is accompanied by the application of manure (10 kg of fertilizer per 1 sq.m). Mineral compositions can be applied in the fall, or immediately before planting seeds. In this case, 1 sq.m of soil will require: 3 g of potassium s alt, 2 g of ammonium sulfate, 5 g of superphosphate. You can use ready-made complex fertilizers.
Planting seedlings on a permanent bed
You already know how to grow asparagus from seeds. And how are seedlings planted on permanent beds? To do this, furrows are made in the soil about 40 centimeters wide and deep, keeping a distance of a meter and a half between them. A layer of rotted manure and a humus roller 5-7 centimeters thick are laid on the bottom, on which seedlings are placed. It is important to straighten the branched roots so that they do not rise up.
The distance between individual seedlings should be at least 40 centimeters. In the process of growing asparagus, the furrow will be leveled by pouring earth from the edges. In addition to summer dressings in September, when the growing season ends, the 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 cutting the stems.
Collectionharvest
Knowing how to grow asparagus from seed at home in your backyard, now you need to figure out when you can harvest it. Begin cutting shoots in the 2nd year; moreover, white shoots that have reached the surface of the covering layer are considered ready, and green shoots that have grown by 15-18 centimeters.
The very first harvest lasts 2-3 weeks, and then the vegetable is harvested for a month and a half every day. You can store fresh asparagus for several weeks in the refrigerator in plastic bags.
In general, knowing some simple rules, you can independently grow various varieties of juicy asparagus. By the way, it has been noticed that female plants give thick and tender shoots, and male plants give a bountiful harvest.
