Patience pays off well when it comes to growing delicious asparagus spears
Plant some asparagus crowns and enjoy fresh spears in the spring for years to come. It takes a few years for plants to establish, but it’s well worth the wait for that first crop. Growing from crowns allows you to start cutting spears years sooner than growing from seed.
This clump-forming perennial needs to build up streng th, so that when you cut the earliest shoots for eating, it still has enough energy to put on more growth and build more energ y to store in winter, ready for the following year’s crop. Leave the crop completely in the first season and just taste a few in the second. By the third, you could crop for three to four weeks. After that, up to eight weeks is normal. Don’t be tempted to cut spears for longer because next year’s yield will be poor.