Asparagus from Seed

By Jenks Farmer | July 5, 2014 |

Everyone, yes even the web, will tell you that if you want to grow asparagus, start from crowns planted in the fall. But some recent research and plain old common sense says that asparagus from seed can be just as productive. It certainly is cheaper.

If you look around gardens this time of year, you’ll find Asparagus plants with little red fruits. Those are female asparagus plants. (Remember a fruit means it’s a female right? Recall that when an ovary gets pollinated, it makes a fruit and all that jazz, meaning if it has a fruit, it had an ovary and so it is female.)

Just collect the fruit, clean them and sow them in about an inch of soil. They’ll be up in 6 weeks. Move them to the garden, mulch with compost and in 3 years, start harvesting.

Yes, there are reasons to grow from crowns. Like you don’t want to grow from seed. Or if you are a farmer, you might want only male asparagus spears (they are bigger & sell better). From seed grown asparagus, you’ll have male and female plants — which means you’ll have more seeds and sometimes those come up own their own, in the ground, making them asparagus weeds!