spear a thought for asparagus
ages and turns yellow so that the plant
always maintains four or five healthy
shoots. The mother fern method allows
the mature foliage left on the plants to
provide assimilate for the spears that
are cut for eating, thus preventing the
plant from becoming weakened by
continual harvesting. This means there
are always some mature ferns on the
plants that have to be carefully parted
during the harvesting phase to find
and cut the new spears as they emerge.
While this is a little more time consuming than cutting from crowns as they
come out of dormancy (and don’t have
any canopy of foliage to negotiate), it
does ensure year-round cropping that
vastly extends the traditional eightweek spring harvest period.
Mature plants can always be forced
into dormancy if they need to be
shifted out of the indoor garden
for a period of time, or as another
method of managing spear growth and
harvesting. This is done by inducing
drought conditions by withdrawing
irrigation for a month, which has the same Plants can then have the dying foliage
effect on the plant as when temperatures
cut back are kept in this dormant state
drop in fall and winter outdoors.
until growth needs to be resumed with
warmth, nutrients and moisture.
Commercially, all these methods of
asparagus production are carried out in
different climates, although early spring
spears produced from plants coming out
of winter dormancy are often considered of higher quality than those grown
in tropical environments where spear
growth is more rapid and may be thinner and more spindly. With an indoor
garden, where temperatures can be
easily controlled, the problems of excessive heat as experienced by asparagus in
tropical growing regions and cold winter
dormancy can be avoided and top-quality spears produced. As an added bonus,
hydroponic spears grown with advanced
nutrition; control over moisture, light
and temperatures; a clean, grit free
medium (coco fiber is excellent); and
a protected environment are extra
Freshly cut and ready for cooking, hydroponic
tender and succulent as compared
asparagus spears only need a few minutes in
to those grown outdoors.
boiling water to be at their best.
“With an indoor garden, where temperatures can
be easily controlled, the problems of excessive
heat as experienced by asparagus in tropical
growing regions and cold winter dormancy can
be avoided and top-quality spears produced.”
58
Maximum Yield USA | January 2014