well-rotted dung, three or four inches thick, and then be regularly
trenched two spades deep, and the dung buried equally in each trench
twelve or fifteen inches below the surface. When this trenching is done,
lay two or three inches of thoroughly rotted manure over the whole
surface, and dig the ground over again eight or ten inches deep, mixing
this top-dressing, and incorporating it well with the earth.
"In family gardens it is customary to divide the ground thus prepared
into beds, allowing four feet for every four rows of plants, with alleys
two feet and a half wide between each bed. Strain your line along the
bed six inches from the edge; then with a spade cut out a small trench
or drill close to the line, about six inches deep, making that side next
to the line nearly upright; when one trench is opened, plant that before
you open another, placing the plants upright ten or twelve inches
distance in the row, and let every row be twelve inches apart.
"The plants must not be placed flat in the bottom of the trench, but
nearly upright against the back of it, and so that the crown of the
plants must also stand upright, and two or three inches below the
surface of the ground, spreading their roots somewhat regularly against
the back of the trench, and at the same time drawing a little earth up
against them with the hand as you place them, just to fix the plants in
their due position until the row is planted; when one row is thus
placed, with a rake or hoe draw the earth into the trench over the
plants, and then proceed to open another drill or trench, as before
directed, and fill and cover it in the same manner, and so on until the
whole is planted; then let the surface of the beds be raked smooth and
clear from stones, etc.
"Some gardeners, with a view to having extra large heads, place their
plants sixteen inches apart in the rows instead of twelve, and by
planting them in the quincunx manner--that is, by commencing the second
row eight inches from the end of the first and the fourth even with the
second--the plants will form rhomboidal squares instead of rectangular
ones, and every plant will thus have room to expand its roots and leaves
luxuriantly."
In diametrical contradistinction, and as an example of the very plainest
and simplest of modern methods, Joseph Harris wrote: "If you are going
to plant a small bed in the garden, stretch a line not less than four
feet from any other plant, and with a hoe make holes along the line,
eighteen inches or three feet apart, four inches deep, and large enough
to hold the plants when the roots are spread out horizontally. Do not
make deep holes straight down in the ground and stick the roots in as
you would a cabbage, but spread out the roots. After the roots are set
out cover them with fine soil, and that is all there is to it. Then move
the line three feet from the first row and repeat the planting until the
bed is finished. In the field make the rows with a common corn-marker,
three feet apart each way, and set out a plant where the rows cross. It
is but little more work to plant an acre of asparagus than an acre of
potatoes."
Between these extreme methods many different directions for planting
asparagus have been given and practiced. Modern methods have not only
greatly simplified the planting, but have also materially reduced the
expense, increased the crop, and improved the quality of the product.
[Illustration: FIG. 15--TRENCHES READY FOR PLANTING]
After the ground has been properly prepared, it is marked off in
parallel rows from three to five or more feet apart, according to the
preferences of the grower. The easiest way to open these trenches is by
plowing a furrow each way, and, if necessary, going over the ground a
sufficient number of times to make the furrows from eight to ten inches
deep. After this the loose soil is thrown out with a shovel or a wide
hoe, so as to leave the trenches at a uniform depth of ten to twelve
inches and of the same width at the bottom, as seen in Fig. 15. By
rigging a piece of board on the mold-board of the plow more soil is
thrown out, so that usually it will not be necessary to go over the
ground oftener than twice. The Messrs. Hudson & Son, of Long Island,
have devised for their own use a "trencher" (Fig. 16), which with a good
team opens the trench to the desired depth in one operation and at a
great saving of labor.
[Illustration: FIG. 16--HUDSON'S TRENCHER]
If the entire ground has been heavily fertilized, plowing manure in the
trenches will not be necessary, yet many experienced asparagus growers
think that it pays to scatter some fertilizing material into the
trenches before planting. A favorite plan with Long Island growers is to
mix half a ton of ground bone, or fish scrap, with one hundred pounds of
nitrate of soda per acre, and thoroughly incorporate this mixture with
the soil to a depth of three inches before setting the plants. Others
prefer thoroughly decomposed manure spread over the bottom of the
furrow, to a depth of about three inches, before setting the plants.
Others prefer thoroughly decomposed manure spread over the bottom of the
furrow, to a depth of about three inches, and covering it with two
inches of fine soil. If the roots are to be planted four or more feet
apart it will be sufficient to throw a shovelful of manure where the
roots are to be placed. This is then spread out so as to make a layer
of about three inches, which is then covered with soil.
PLACING THE ROOTS
The proper planting of the roots is the most critical point in asparagus
culture, as upon the manner in which this is performed--more than upon
other detail--depends the success, yield, duration, and profit of the
plantation. Almost any other neglect can be remedied by after-treatment,
but careless and faulty planting, never. Whatever care and personal
attention the grower may give to this work will be repaid manyfold in
future returns.
[Illustration: FIG. 17--ASPARAGUS ROOT IN PROPER POSITION FOR COVERING]
As stated before, only strong, healthy one-year-old plants with three or
four strong buds should be used, so as to insure an even growth over the
entire field, and at every stage of the work great care must be taken
not to expose the roots to the drying influences of sun and winds. When
everything is in readiness for planting, the roots are placed in the
trench, the crown in the center and the rootlets spread out evenly and
horizontally, like the spokes of a wheel, and at once covered with three
inches of fine, mellow soil, which is pressed around them. If the ground
is dry at planting-time it should be pressed down quite firmly about the
roots, so as to prevent their drying out, and to hasten their growth.
[Illustration: FIG. 18--CROSS-SECTION OF ASPARAGUS BED AFTER PLANTING]
To still more insure success it is an excellent plan to draw up little
hills of soil in the bottom of the trench over which to place the roots
with the crowns resting on the top, thus raising the crowns a few inches
above the extremities of the roots and providing for them a position
similar to what they stood in before transplanting, as seen in Fig. 17.
The subsequent covering of the roots can usually be done with a
one-horse plow, from which the mold-board has been removed, passing down
the sides of the row. This leaves the plants in a depression, the soil
thrown out in opening the rows forming a ridge on each side, as shown in
Fig. 18. This depression will gradually become filled during the process
of cultivation the succeeding summer.
IX
CULTIVATION
As generally understood, the chief object of cultivation is to kill
weeds. This is an erroneous idea, however, as the appearance of weeds
serves simply as Nature's reminder of the necessity of immediate
cultivation. On ground cultivated as thoroughly as it should be for the
best development of the crop there will rarely be any weeds to kill, as
their germs have been destroyed by the process of cultivation before
they could make their appearance above the ground.
CARE DURING THE FIRST YEAR
The cultural work in the asparagus bed during the first year consists in
loosening the soil at frequent intervals, and especially as soon after
rain as the ground becomes dry enough for cultivation. Frequent and
thorough cultivation is necessary not only to keep down the weeds, but
also to prevent the formation of a crust on the soil after rain, and to
provide a mulch of loose earth for the retention of moisture. In field
culture the work is best done with a one-horse cultivator or a
wheel-hoe, and on a small scale with a scuffle-hoe and a rake. As the
sprouts grow up small quantities of fine soil should be drawn into the
trenches from time to time, but during the early part of the season
great care must be exercised not to cover the crowns too deeply.
Some growers advise to work the soil away instead of toward the plants,
considering the four inches of soil with which the roots are covered at
planting sufficient for the first year. While this may be true in a wet
or moderately moist summer, in a season of drouth the additional mulch
of mellow soil can not but be beneficial to the young and tender plants.
Especial care is required when working around the young sprouts, so as
not to cover, break, or in any way injure any of them.
In the garden bed it pays to stake the canes when they are but a foot
high, so as to prevent the wind from disturbing the stools in the soil
by swaying the shoots backward and forward. Careful gardeners insert
stakes for this purpose at the time of planting, before the roots are
covered with soil, so as to guard against the danger of injuring any of
them. The best material for this tying is raffia, or Cuban bast. In
field culture staking is usually not practicable, partly on account of
the cost, and also because where there are many plants growing close
together they furnish some mutual protection to one another. The same
end may also be accomplished--partly, at least--by throwing up a furrow
on each side of the rows of plants. Precautions of this kind are
important in localities exposed to high winds, as their neglect may
often cause greater loss than it would have cost to provide proper
protection.
Another important work in the asparagus bed during the first year is to
keep close and constant watch over the asparagus beetle, and at its
first appearance to apply the remedies recommended in the chapter on
injurious insects. Plants deprived of their foliage at this early stage
of their life have but a poor chance to recover from the loss.
If it is found that some of the plants have not started by the middle of
June, it is best to replace them with growing plants of the same age,
which should have been kept in a reserve bed for this purpose. If this
replanting is done carefully, so as not to mutilate any of the roots,
and on a cloudy day, it is best not to cut back the tops very severely.
Unless a copious rain sets in soon after planting, the roots have to be
heavily watered, after which they will keep on growing at once without
suffering any setback.
The formerly all but universal practice was to cover the roots with
manure after the stalks had been removed in the fall for fear of frost
injuring or killing the roots. In sections where winters are very severe
this may still be desirable, as may be seen from the statement of so
keen an observer as Professor J. C. Whitten, of the Missouri Experiment
Station: "Most writers advise applying dressing of old fine manure
during the growing season when the plants can use it. In our soil better
results are obtained by applying it in winter. It prevents the soil from
running together and hardening, and also prevents the sprouts from
coming through, as they otherwise often do, too early in spring, and
becoming weakened by subsequent severe freezing."
As the reverse of this plan, M. Godefroy-Leboeuf, the famous French
authority, recommends "to clear out of the trenches the soil which has
fallen into them from the sides of the mounds, and also remove from
above the stools a portion of that with which they were covered at the
time they were planted--say, to a depth of one and one-half inches--so
that the action of the frost may open the soil and that the rain may
penetrate and improve it; also that during the first fine days of spring
the sun may warm the surface of the soil and penetrate as far as the
stools. There is no fear that the action of the frost should hurt the
plants. Asparagus will never freeze as long as the stool is covered with
a layer of soil one and one-half to one and three-fourth inches in
depth."
If the rows are not less than four feet apart a crop of some other
vegetables may be raised between them. Beans, dwarf peas, lettuce,
beets, or any kinds which do not spread much, are suitable for the
purpose. These by-products will help considerably toward paying the cost
of cultivating the main crop, besides having a tendency to keep the soil
cool and moist, a condition of no little importance to the asparagus.
CARE DURING THE SECOND YEAR
The treatment of the asparagus plantation during the second year does
not differ materially from that of the first season after planting. The
ground has to be stirred frequently and kept scrupulously clean, and a
sharp lookout must be kept for the advent of injurious insects. As soon
as berries appear on the tops they should be stripped off and destroyed,
as the ripening seed absorbs a large share of the nourishment which
ought to go to the development and strengthening of the crowns which are
to produce the following year's crop.
Even with the best of care, some plants will die out from time to time,
although the more thoroughly the ground has been prepared at the time of
planting, and the better the quality of the roots planted, the fewer
failures of this kind will occur. These blank spaces are not only
constant eyesores to the methodical gardener, but in the course of
several years the aggregate shortage of crops will be considerable,
while the amount of labor and fertilizer will be the same as in a fully
stocked plantation. Therefore, such vacancies should be filled in the
spring, not only of the second year, but whenever they occur in future
seasons.
The best way to replant these dead or dying roots is to go over the rows
each fall, before the ground freezes, and drive a stake wherever there
is a plant missing, as in the spring, before the plants have started, it
would be difficult, if not impossible, to indicate the blank spaces. For
replanting in the second year good strong two-year-old roots should be
used. For the third and future years it is best to raise and keep a
supply of a sufficient number of reserve plants for this special purpose
in a similar manner as is done for forcing. As early in spring as the
season permits these clumps should be carefully lifted and transferred
to the permanent plantation. For three-year and older beds good strong
three-year-old roots should be used, as younger ones would have but a
poor chance between two older and well-established clumps.
CARE DURING THE THIRD AND FUTURE YEARS
The third year cutting may begin in a moderate way, but too much should
not be attempted. If all the conditions of growth have been favorable
half a crop may be cut without injuring the roots, but under no
circumstances should cutting in the third year be continued for more
than three weeks. The general care of the bed during the third year is
similar to that of the second, with the exception that the soil is
worked more toward the rows, ridging them slightly.
In the spring of the third and each succeeding year, as soon as the
ground can be worked it should be plowed between the rows, turning the
soil toward and over the crowns, leaving a dead furrow between the rows,
as seen in Fig. 19. If bleached asparagus is desired, these ridges over
the rows should be twelve inches higher than the bottom of the dead
furrows between the rows, and when the soil is very light and sandy a
hight of fifteen inches is preferable. For green asparagus the ridges
are left lower, and the shoots are allowed to grow several inches above
the ground before cutting, provided the asparagus beetle does not
appropriate them sooner.
[Illustration: FIG. 19--PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF AN ASPARAGUS FIELD PROPERLY
RIDGED IN EARLY SPRING MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION]
After the furrows are plowed out between the rows a home-made ridger is
used to smooth the ridges and complete the work. This is formed of two
heavy oak boards shod with tire iron, sloping upward and backward,
attached to a pair of cultivator wheels. This requires a good team, one
horse walking on either side of the row. On the light soils of Long
Island this implement works to perfection, but on stiff lands a
two-horse disk-wheel cultivator, with two disks on each side, going
astride of each row and throwing up fresh soil upon the ridge, proves
more effective. The same implements are used for renewing the ridges
during the cutting season, which will be required about once a week, as
the rains beat them down and the sun bakes a crust upon the top.
Immediately after the cutting season is over the ridges are leveled, by
plowing a furrow from each side of the center (Fig. 20), after which the
land is harrowed crosswise until the surface is level and smooth. As
long as practical, surface cultivation should be given, especially after
rains, but usually at this time the plants make such rapid and vigorous
growth that there will be little time for the work. Their tops and
branches soon fill the entire space and quickly shade the ground so
densely as to keep down weed growth. Of course, whatever tall weeds may
spring up here and there have to be pulled out by hand.
FALL TREATMENT
[Illustration: FIG. 20--LEVELING THE RIDGES AFTER THE CUTTING SEASON]
The fall clearing of the plantation is an important part of asparagus
culture. As soon as the berries are turning red--but not before--the
stalks should be cut off even with the ground. If left longer the
berries will drop off, their seeds will soon become embedded in the
ground and fill the soil with seedling asparagus plants, which are about
the most obstinate weed in the asparagus bed. If cut sooner they are not
sufficiently matured, and the roots are deprived of their nourishment.
All the brush should be removed at once to an open field and burned, so
as not to provide lodging-places for injurious insects and fungi. Some
recommend leaving the seedless plants as a mulch during the winter, but
the possible benefit of this is so insignificant that it is not worth
while to leave them for a second cleaning in spring, when time is far
more valuable.
RENOVATING OLD ASPARAGUS BEDS
The principal causes of asparagus beds running out are that in the first
place ten plants are set out in a space where only one could thrive;
then that the ground is not rich enough and had no proper cultivation;
and last, but not least, that the cutting of the stalks has been carried
to excess. What to do with the old bed is sometimes a perplexing
question, especially when a place changes hands and the new proprietor
has more progressive ideas than the former one had.
Let the old bed stay, and set out a new one according to rational
methods. Some years ago the writer came into possession of an asparagus
bed which was known to be forty years old, and may have been much older.
It was a solid mass of roots without any distinguishable rows. The
spears produced were so small and tough that the first impulse was to
dig up the roots. But as this proved to be a more formidable task than
was anticipated, another plan was pursued. In autumn the bed was thickly
covered with fine yard manure. The following spring the bed was marked
out into strips of two feet in width. When the sprouts appeared those in
every alternate strip were cut clean off during the entire summer, and
the others allowed to grow. In the autumn of the year another heavy
application of manure was given to the entire bed. The following year
but few shoots appeared in the strips which had been cut all through the
summer. These were treated the same as before, and in the third year not
a sprout appeared in the alleys. The stalks left for use improved
greatly during the first year and the third year were of good
serviceable size and quality, so that even after the new bed, which had
been planted at the time this experiment was commenced, came into
bearing, the old one was retained for several years longer. Probably if
the vacant strips had been made three or four feet wide the result would
have been still better. This experience suggests the idea that the
easiest and least expensive way of exterminating an old asparagus bed is
to persistently mow down all the shoots for a season or two.
X
FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZING
Asparagus is a gross feeder. There is hardly another plant in
cultivation upon the vitality of which so great a demand is made. The
cutting of all its sprouts, or shoots, as soon as they appear above the
ground, for several weeks, is an abnormal and enormous tax upon the
plant, which is thus forced to extra exertion in order to reproduce
itself and perpetuate its kind. Therefore, it should have the most
tender care, and an abundance of nourishing and readily available food.
The earliness, tenderness, size, and commercial value of the product
depends principally on the rapidity of its growth, and, as this is
materially promoted by the richness of the soil, it is evident that the
plants should receive all the food they can assimilate during the
growing season.
There is a wide difference of opinion among growers as to which is the
best kind of manure to use. Whatever the individual preferences may be,
there is this satisfaction to know that no kind of plant food can come
amiss on the asparagus bed, although the use of some kinds and
combinations may be more economical than others. Formerly animal manures
only were thought to be of any use for asparagus, and there are still
some growers who cling to this opinion. In recent years, however, there
has been a decided reaction in this regard in some of the principal
asparagus sections. The objections made against stable manure are that
it is more expensive to handle, that it is apt to get the land full of
weeds, and that it does not contain sufficient phosphoric acid and
potash. At present many growers use commercial fertilizers exclusively,
convinced that asparagus needs liberal feeding of potash and more
nitrogen than is generally supposed to be required.
The composition of 1,000 parts of fresh asparagus sprouts is, according
to Wolff:
Water 933 parts
Nitrogen 3.2 "
Ash 5.0 "
Potash 1.2 "
Soda 0.9 "
Lime 0.6 "
Magnesia 0.2 "
Phosphoric acid 0.9 "
Sulphuric acid 0.3 "
Silica 0.5 "
Chlorine 0.3 "
This analysis shows very accurately what a given weight of asparagus
abstracts from the soil, but it does not, and can not, show or even
indicate certain indispensable demands. In this, as in other cases, the
analysis of a crop is a very uncertain guide to its proper
fertilization. It should be clearly understood by every cultivator of
the soil that no rigidly fixed formulas can be given for any one crop on
all soils. The question of quantity of application and of proportion
must always, in the very nature of the case, remain more or less a
matter of individual experiment. The following formula, given by Prof.
P. H. Rolfs, makes a good asparagus fertilizer:
Nitrogen 4 per cent.
Potash 5 "
Available phosphoric acid 7 "
One thousand five hundred pounds of the above formula should be applied
per acre. When possible apply twenty to forty tons of vegetable
material, such as partially rotted rakings of barnyard manure. Where
such vegetable matter is procurable, the quantity of nitrogen may be
decreased proportionately. If manure is obtainable, allowance should be
made for the fertilizing elements contained therein.
An excellent formula for one ton of asparagus fertilizer, given by Prof.
W. F. Massey, consists of:
200 lbs. nitrate of soda
700 " cottonseed-meal
800 " acid phosphate (13 per cent.)
300 " muriate of potash
This will yield 4.9 per cent. ammonia, 6.1 per cent. available
phosphoric acid, 8.4 per cent. potash.