There are two basic kinds of asparagus you can grow: all-male varieties, or varieties that have male and female plants. Asparagus, like people, comes in male and female forms. The female plants make berries that contain the seeds. The male plants don't have to spend any energy making these berries, so they typically make more spears. Plant scientists have developed all-male varieties for more production, but the older, heirloom kinds have both male and female plants. Most gardening books advise you to pull up the female plants before they make seeds, otherwise the seeds will fall off, germinate in the soil next to the parent plant, and crowd the asparagus bed.
Despite this warning, I decided to plant an old male/female variety, "Precoce d'Argenteuil," that is originally from France. This makes thick, purple-tinged spears. Some people cover them while they're growing to produce white asparagus. I chose this variety because it sounded interesting, and I actually wanted a variety that would produce seeds so that, if I wanted to, I could collect them and give them to friends or otherwise spread them around, without having to rely on plant scientists or garden stores. More asparagus! For free! Always a good thing.
In the Midwest, where I grew up, I often found wild asparagus growing along riversides and in fields. During a period in my life when I was young and poor, I ate a lot of it because it was free and delicious. Another time, while backpacking in Virginia, during a resupply stop in a town, I found a vacant lot full of it and amazed other hikers by coming back to camp with an armload of free, fresh spears for everyone to share.
I figure if I have my own source of asparagus seeds, I can be a Johnny Appleseed of asparagus, planting my extra seeds in out-of-the-way places around the Island, where it will become wild. I've actually seen some wild asparagus growing along the roadside near my house already.
So, at the end of January, I soaked 30 asparagus seeds, which I got from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com) in water overnight. The next day I poked holes in the bottom of an aluminum pie pan for drainage, filled it with seed starting mix, and planted the asparagus seeds 1/2 inch deep, about an inch apart.
29 of the seeds germinated and within a few weeks I had this:
The ferns are 6-8 inches tall. Today I watered them, filled plastic cups with more seed-starting mix, and carefully transplanted each one to its own cup. Their roots were 2-3 inches long already. Later in the spring I'll plant them in a bed.
Some people say you should plant them in a "nursery bed" for a year before moving them to their final location a year later; others say you can plant them in their final location right away. I'll have to look into that more before I plant them.
While writing this, I just had an idea: maybe this year I'll keep an eye on those wild plants near me, and collect their seeds. Then next year, I'll grow them. Just to see what happens, and what kind of asparagus it is.
Update, February 27, 2013
Those little plants grew and thrived. I did plant them in a nursery bed, which was just a corner of one of my regular garden beds, and let them grow for a year. Then last year I planted them in a permanent bed, which I enriched with a lot of compost, aged manure, and leafmold. They were incredibly strong and healthy and grew huge ferns over the summer! I'm hoping to be able to harvest a few spears from them this year.
I started more asparagus seeds this year by winter-sowing them, and I hope to nurture those plants and eventually plant them out in the wild, where they will hopefully prosper and spread.
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