Advice for Growing Asparagus

How thickly did you plant it, and how deep? Also, how long ago? Ideally, it should not be harvested for the first 2 years after planting. (Wait until its 3rd growing season.) It should be planted at least a foot deep, deeper if possible. Roots should not be planted any closer together than about a foot. Sometimes you will get plants closer together because the plant has seeded and you get shallow plants among the "good" ones. You can easily pull these, and they will be spindly at first, and easy to spot. A good mulch will help minimize this. You can harvest from mature plants from the time they come up in the spring until about the first day of summer, at least in the NE US. (The take-away here is that it should not be harvested all season--it needs time to feed the roots. Around here, we harvest around 2 months.) At the end of the season, once all the ferny tops have turned brown, you can cut them off at ground level. The reason some say to remove the female plants (that bear the seeds) is so you don't get self-seeding; but we have never found this to be a problem. When you harvest, cut or break the spears at ground level.