Asparagus, its culture for home use and for market Part 5

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 s.p.a.ces. 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 circ.u.mstances 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 s.p.a.ce 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

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 princ.i.p.al causes of asparagus beds running out are that in the first place ten plants are set out in a s.p.a.ce 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 ma.s.s 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 antic.i.p.ated, 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 nouris.h.i.+ng and readily available food.

The earliness, tenderness, size, and commercial value of the product depends princ.i.p.ally 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 a.s.similate 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.n.a.lysis 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 a.n.a.lysis 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 quant.i.ty 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 quant.i.ty 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. Ma.s.sey, 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.

The effects of the application of a scientifically balanced fertilizer ration upon asparagus is clearly ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 21, which presents a photographic reproduction of an experimental plat of the North Carolina State Horticultural Society at Southern Pines, N. C., fertilized with

250 lbs. nitrate of soda 400 " acid phosphate 160 " muriate of potash

per acre, while Fig. 22 shows a plat of equal size which remained unfertilized.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21--NORTH CAROLINA'S EXPERIMENT FARM ASPARAGUS PLOT; FERTILIZED]

The following table gives the amounts of different fertilizer materials necessary to give the desired quant.i.ty of each element:

_Element_ _Pounds of different materials for one acre_ { 800 to 1,000 lbs. cottonseed-meal; or Nitrogen { 350 to 400 " nitrate of soda; or { 275 to 300 " sulphate of ammonia; or { 400 to 600 " dried blood.

{ 300 to 500 lbs. kainit; or Potash { 150 lbs. muriate of potash; or { 150 to 300 lbs. sulphate of potash

Phosphoric acid { 750 to 1,000 lbs. acid phosphate; or { 600 to 800 dissolved bone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22--NORTH CAROLINA EXPERIMENT FARM ASPARAGUS PLOT; UNFERTILIZED]

"Asparagus requires very heavy manuring, and yet its composition would not indicate it," writes Mr. Charles V. Mapes. "The explanation is found in the fact that it must grow very rapidly, otherwise it is tough, stringy and flavorless, the same as with radishes. If it had a long season to grow in, like timothy hay, it might grow successfully in very poor soil. A half ton of timothy hay contains about as much plant food, and in similar proportions, as two thousand bunches of asparagus, or five thousand quarts of strawberries, and yet while this quant.i.ty of hay will grow on an acre of almost any poor soil, the strawberries or asparagus for a fair crop per acre require a rich garden soil. If the hay were obliged to make as rapid growth as the asparagus, then it also would require rich soil. With the strawberry there is but the lapse of a few weeks from the time of blossoming to the full development of its fruit. The plants need a superabundance of plant food within easy reach, otherwise the fruit is small and inferior. The plant can not bear profitable fruit and at the same time be compelled to struggle for existence. The same is the case with asparagus. Neither of these crops can take up out of the soil all the fertilizer that needs to be applied for their successful growth, and therefore there is necessarily a large quant.i.ty of plant food unused and left over in the soil."

For these reasons, asparagus, while not necessarily an exhaustive crop, requires heavy manuring. One ton of high grade vegetable manure is none too much per acre, and is small, particularly in the expense, as compared with the larger quant.i.ties of stable manure per acre, as recommended by some successful growers. As already stated, formerly it was thought necessary to place large quant.i.ties of manure in the bottom of the deep trenches in which the young plants were set out, in order that sufficient fertility might be present for several years for the roots, as after the plants were once planted there would be no further opportunity to apply the manure in such an advantageous place. This theory has been found erroneous and the practice has been demonstrated to be rather a waste than otherwise, and besides the roots of asparagus thrive better when resting upon a more compact soil; nor is it necessary that the soil should contain great amounts of humus, or be in an extremely fertile condition when the plants are first put out, since by the system of top-dressing a moderately fertile soil soon becomes exceedingly rich and equal to the demands which the plants make upon it.

The plan of top-dressing beds during the fall or early winter is gradually giving way to the more rational mode of top-dressing in the spring or summer. It was believed that autumn dressing strengthened the roots and enabled them to throw up stronger shoots during the following spring. This is a mistake, however. In the Oyster Bay region formerly all manuring was done in the spring, but the practice of applying all fertilizers immediately after the cutting is finished is rapidly increasing. The reason for this is found in the fact that, during the growth of the stalks, after the cutting season is over, the crowns form the buds from which the spears of next season spring, and it is probable that it is princ.i.p.ally during this period that the roots a.s.similate and store up the materials which produce these spears. This being true, the plant food added to the soil and becoming available after the cessation of vegetation in the autumn can have little, if any, effect upon the spears which are cut for market the following spring; it first becomes of use to the plant after the crop has been cut and the stalks allowed to grow. Thus the manuring of the autumn of 1901 will not benefit the grower materially until the spring of 1903.

Nevertheless, some highly successful asparagus raisers continue to apply fertilizers in the spring, as evidenced by the following directions given by one of the most prominent growers in the Oyster Bay district.

"After the roots have been set in the drill, put enough soil on them to cover about two inches. Then sow about 500 pounds of high grade potato fertilizer per acre in the drill. As the weeds commence to grow, cultivate and hoe, letting the soil cave down in the drill. About the middle of the season sow about 500 pounds more of fertilizer in the drill. Continue to cultivate and hoe the remainder of the season. At the end of the season the drill should be entirely filled up. The second year sow about 2,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre broadcast, plow the ground and harrow it down level, and keep the ground clean. The third year open the drill over the asparagus with a one-horse plow, broadcast 2,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre about the time the shoots begin to show, and back-furrow it up with a plow over the drill to form a ridge.