I googled "harvesting asparagus" last night and discovered that I've messed up. All the sites I read said to harvest the asparagus in early spring, cutting ALL the stalks when they reach seven to nine inches. Letting the stalks grow tall and get fronds will inhibit the growth of new stalks. Harvest for about four weeks, then let the rest of the stalks grow throughout the summer.
And here I was thinking that I had to first let several grow up tall and get fronds before I could start cutting some. I thought that if I cut them too soon, I would be stunting the growth of the plant.
Sooo, I might have waited too long to harvest any this year because, as shown in my Critter Gitter post, the asparagus is all tall and frondy. Now my dilema is..should I cut the tall frondy ones off so that I get more shoots to harvest, or is it too late this year to do anything about it?
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The a few of the fronds can look cute in flower arrangements as filler, but don't cut them all down until after they have died back. Right now they are putting all of their energy into reproduction and to hack it all back will make the harvest next year smaller. (The first 2 years you don't harvest asparagus.)
Think of it this way, you may have missed it this year getting just a few spears, but next year you will have even more to harvest. (The plants will have bigger crowns next year and will be more established.)
If your asparagus is not an all male hybrid variety, keep an eye out for the female plants that will put out berries. The berries are ripe when they turn red (which you can collect for the seeds inside). Some birds like to eat the berries. The seeds pass through their systems intact (which is probably explains why on my Mom's farm there are volunteer asparagus plants all along the fence. Her patch is several decades old.)
Good luck. :)
~ Anne
Thanks for the info. I had decided to just chalk this year up to experience and enjoy the bigger harvest next year. I'll watch for the berries, but I'm pretty sure there weren't any last year.
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