starting Asparagus from seed

[matchynishi]

Anyone have experience with starting Asparagus from seed? I have some Jersey Giant seeds, and I've been googling, but found contradictory info. Some say to start the seeds in late fall, others say to start in the spring... I'm kinda confused, all in all

Comments

[dark_phoenix54]

We've always started ours in spring. I'd start them all; they don't all germinate.

We soak ours for two days before planting, scatter them in a flat filled with potting soil, cover lightly, and keep moist. They germinate irregularly; some may come up right away and some not for months.

[matchynishi]

Great, will do.. Can you tell me what month you start the seeds, and how long until the seedlings are put out? Our last frost date is generally sometime in the first 2 weeks of May... so should I start them early in Feb/March, you think? thanks!

[rhodielady_47]

You might also think of starting your seeds inside a ziploc bag. The bag keeps the humidity in the air constant and that helps keep your young seedlings alive during their first month of life.
Hope this helps.
:)

[matchynishi]

Thanks, will remember that!

[cat63]

I've grown my first lot from seed this year, sowed them in spring and they're now nice little fluffy green things in pots in the greenhouse. I'm hoping they'll survive the winter well enough to be planted out in the bed I'm getting ready for them next spring.

I didn't do anything special to the seeds, just put them in modules and watered them . Possibly worth mentioning that they were fairly slow to germinate and also that they germinated over quite a long period - I had new seedlings emerging in the modules for some time after I'd potted up the earlier ones.

Good luck with yours!

[matchynishi]

I hope they thrive for you! :) Growing Asparagus is a study in patience, isn't it, lol.

Also I read that asparagus seedlings are finicky with transplanting - have you seen that?

[cat63]

They seem happy enough being repotted so far, but I expect the hard bit will be planting them up outside.

I have an old greenhouse base outside, which I've been using as a compost heap - over the last few weeks I've been working on removing the top layers and levelling it off, so when that's done. I'll hopefully be left with some nice deep rich soil for the asparagus to go in when spring arrives (assuming it bothers to).

[matchynishi]

Looks like you have a good plan, no reason to believe it won't work.. Let's hope both of us will be eating home grown asparagus in a few years! :)

[blk]

I started from seed the one year I planted things indoors, so around March? The initial sprouts are soooooo cute and tiny! I think I planted like a dozen or so and I thought only like two came up so I dumped the rest in the compost but then I found several more than had hung on, so I have I think 7 plants overall. I read that you should plant them in your final location and not move them around, so I did that come spring and then ignored them

[matchynishi]

ahahaa sounds like you had some fun with it - to make up for the long wait till harvest! This is an experiment to see if it'll work for me, so I thought might as well go the whole way and start from seed instead of the crowns! I still have to prepare the soil where they're to be planted, but well, I guess I have next spring and summer for that, lol. Lots of digging in my future. :D And then of course, The Wait. o_o