The Complete Handbook of Asparagus

Chapter 1: Understanding Asparagus

Let's get one thing clear first: asparagus is not a vegetable like a carrot or a head of lettuce. It is not an annual that you plant, grow, and harvest in a single season. The part you eat is a spear - a young, edible shoot that emerges from a perennial crown buried in the soil. That crown, once established, is capable of sending up shoots every spring for a decade or more, and in some cases for decades. This simple botanical fact is the most important piece of information you will ever learn about asparagus because it dictates everything that follows: how you plant it, how you manage it, how you harvest it, and how you budget for it.

Technically, asparagus belongs to the lily family, Liliaceae, though its taxonomy has shifted a bit over the years. The cultivated variety is almost exclusively Asparagus officinalis. It is dioecious, which means there are separate male and female plants. The males are typically more productive. They do not expend energy producing seeds, so they redirect that energy into more spears. The females, if a male is present in the field, will produce the familiar red berries full of black seeds to create the next generation. This is crucial for anyone growing asparagus from seed: your field will be a mixture of males and females unless you are buying an all-male hybrid crown. Modern all-male hybrids are the standard for any serious commercial operation because of their