Right, finally getting a crop, having grown it from seed.
Now, some shoots are very thin and some shoots I wasn't around to
pick at the right moment.
Do I pick them anyway to encourage more shoots or do I leave them
there to strengthen the plants?
--
Mike Reid
Wasdale-Thames path-London-Photos "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Eat-walk-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap

In article , The Reids
writes
Right, finally getting a crop, having grown it from seed.
Now, some shoots are very thin and some shoots I wasn't around to
pick at the right moment.
Do I pick them anyway to encourage more shoots or do I leave them
there to strengthen the plants?

You leave them!

The initial growing of a shoot takes energy from the plant. It's not
till the shoot has turned green that it starts photosynthesising and
putting energy back into the plant, and doesn't do this on a large scale
until the leaves have opened.

So any shoot that you pick while young is a net loss to the plant -
which is why, when you start cropping seriously, you stop picking by the
end of June, to give the plant the rest of the season to catch up all
the damage you have done early in the season!

Many plants focus their efforts on growing upwards, but if the terminal
bud is damaged, they will throw out side shoots instead. It's in this
situation that cutting back shoots will encourage more shoots. Asparagus
isn't one of these plants.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

The message
from Kay contains these words:

In article , The Reids
writes
Right, finally getting a crop, having grown it from seed.
Now, some shoots are very thin and some shoots I wasn't around to
pick at the right moment.
Do I pick them anyway to encourage more shoots or do I leave them
there to strengthen the plants?

You leave them!

The initial growing of a shoot takes energy from the plant. It's not
till the shoot has turned green that it starts photosynthesising and
putting energy back into the plant, and doesn't do this on a large scale
until the leaves have opened.

So any shoot that you pick while young is a net loss to the plant -
which is why, when you start cropping seriously, you stop picking by the
end of June, to give the plant the rest of the season to catch up all
the damage you have done early in the season!

Many plants focus their efforts on growing upwards, but if the terminal
bud is damaged, they will throw out side shoots instead. It's in this
situation that cutting back shoots will encourage more shoots. Asparagus
isn't one of these plants.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

And dont forget that if it`s only a year old plant then you should
simply leave it for another year anyway. Not going to be strong enough
to take much of a crop without harming the plant.

On 4/15/05 3:00 AM, in article ,
"The Reids" wrote:

Right, finally getting a crop, having grown it from seed.
Now, some shoots are very thin and some shoots I wasn't around to
pick at the right moment.
Do I pick them anyway to encourage more shoots or do I leave them
there to strengthen the plants?
I think of it this way...the fronds are the battery charger and the root
system is the battery. The more battery chargers (fronds) available to
charge the battery (root system) the stronger the battery (root system) will
become: if I cut off the battery chargers (fronds) the battery (root system)
will not get charged...
The size of the fronds reflects the size of the root system. If you have
thin fronds then you have a little root system...
I personally would not cut any fronds until they are at least 'finger'
thick and then only one or two per year....until, until.....! Well, until
'later'!
Gary

Kay wrote in
:

So tell me Kay what sort of crop do you get off each established
plant Jak

In article , jakalad
writes
Kay wrote in
:

So tell me Kay what sort of crop do you get off each established
plant Jak

I dunno! a) I haven't grown it for the last 15 years b) you get a
succession of spears off each plant, and I've never been bothered to
count.

The recommended 12 crowns is not enough for an asparagus nut.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

I used to have an 25 meter long bed, and picked every other day. I got
enough for two people to eat as much as they wanted, and put about 8 bags in
the freezer. If I had fertilized more faithfully, I may have done better.

Dwayne

"jakalad" wrote in message
24...
Kay wrote in
:

So tell me Kay what sort of crop do you get off each established
plant Jak