Asparagus or human fingers.

[kelly8353]

Wow looks like this vid was made in 2009. Hope your still answering questions!?! How far away is your nursery and your local Wal mart? OH and your enchiladas look delish, especially with flour tortias, my favorite!!! My mother always used corn.

PS- I just found your channel : ) 12/28/11 Love watching you plant in your garden. Thanks. Bye

[Praxxus55712]

@kelly8353 I always answer question. :)

My nearest nursery was a few miles away. Not much selection at all. Walmart was 45 minutes away and had an even smaller selection. It's weird about the enchiladas. Most places use corn tortillas but they are insanely delicious with flour tortillas. People who try it this way are amazed.

Thanks for tuning in. I hope you decide to stay. I always enjoy seeing new viewers. :)

[dufffredq8]

I just recently subscribed to your two sites and I just wanted to let you know that I thoroughly enjoy your "ramblings". I like asparagus too. If you have more than one, does it become aparagi? I don't have a garden yet but you've got me thinking and planning. My wife and I have a plot of land by a river in Thailand so once we finish here in Kuwait it'll be time to get my garden started. Your videos are better than TV. Thanks.

[Praxxus55712]

@dufffredq8 Thanks for tuning in. Best of luck on your garden once you get moved to Thailand. I hope you grow many asparaguses......asparagi.....­...asparaberries.........ummm.­.....tomatoes! :)

[GardenNewbie]

Wow they come back each year!!! I didnt know that, assparagus is my dad's fav, ill have to get him one to plant, bet he prob wouldve already if he knew that they come back over and over :D thnx so much !

[Praxxus55712]

@GardenNewbie They not only come back year after year, they get bigger as the years go by. :)

[soccer123456789ist]

how do you make compost?

[ready4ply3950]

really helpful, thanks

[mothmanifest]

whoa! you got werewolves cruising around!

[Brndon076]

great video

[picketfences1]

Asparagus I like your video's my uncle could never grow asparagus because it grass would choke it out Till an old woman told him to use salt and to salt the bed white he said it works just thought you may like to know

[GardenNewbie]

@picketfences1 And no pepper? hahaha how to grow pickled assparagus, lol

[dkim68]

Ray, my asparagus plants tip over a lot. I put in stakes and tied them but sometimes they still droop over. The plants look healthy. It's just at the base of the plants where they seem to bend. Is this normal? Should I add more soil?

[Praxxus55712]

dkim68, mine fall over like that too. It doesn't hurt them though. If one fern dies, it'll send up more. What I did was push in an iron rod about as thick as a finger. I didn't push it down right in the middle. I didn't want to harm the roots. I pushed it in about a foot away. I then tied all the ferns together loosely with twine. Then I tied the bundle of ferns to the rod. They stay put now. This fall I'll allow them to droop and lay down to protect and insulate the roots from the winter.

[dkim68]

@Praxxus55712 thanks for the tip. I did what you said for this year's plants and it's working well. Another question, what is the extent of the growth radius for asparagus? I ask because the weeds get out of control around the asparagus plants. I'd like to lay down weed barrier cloth around the plants but realized the shoots don't always emerge exactly from the center every year. They sort of pop up all over. So I'd like to block the weeds but not block the asparagus. Does that make sense?

[Praxxus55712]

@dkim68 Oh yeah it makes sense for sure. I never know exactly where my shoots will come up. One here, one there........oops there's one way over there! lol

Each spring I toss on a layer of compost on each plant before it sprouts. The pile of compost is 2 inches deep and 2 feet across. This helps kill/suffocate the weed sprouts due to lack of sunlight but allows the asparagus to come up since it will push through a thick layer of compost easily. That's all I do.

[lama8888]

Hey Ive planted 2 types of asparagus this year from Gurney's - Jersey Giant and Purple ( I had read that the purple has a higher sugar content and is realy good for eating raw in salads. Do you grow any of the purple? Also this year Im trying my luck with artichokes I planted the seeds back in Feb and set them in the garden in late March and they are now about 4' in diameter. look forward to seeing more videos by you!

[Praxxus55712]

I planted Gurney's Jersey giant and Martha Washington. Jersey was monsterous and Martha Washington was on sale 2 for 1. You are gonna LOVE the Jersey giants. They're HUGE! lol

I've never grown artichokes. I have no idea why I haven't. I should look up some videos about them because I totally love artichoke dip. Seriously, that stuff is freakishly delicious! :)

[dkim68]

Great video. Very informative. Question: The handful that you harvested which was enough to eat for one person... how many plants did you pick from? I'm just trying to get an idea of how many crowns I should plant to feed three people.

[Praxxus55712]

Good question. I guess it depends on how much you like asparagus. I personally love the heck out of it so I grow a ton. It varies on how many spears you get per crown. The older and healthier they are and the more compost you give them means they'll put out more. Mine put out about 10-12 spears each. I have 19 four year old crowns. That feeds two of us alot. If you grow too much, just freeze the extra. :) I'd advise starting with a dozen crowns and see how that goes. :)

[Irisheyes77christy]

I don't understand the point of reaised beds. Is there a benefit? Also, I noticed your dirt doesn't go that far up inside of them. I would have thought raised beds would be filled up with dirt (or close to it anyways).

[Praxxus55712]

Different people = different reasons for raised beds. My reason is to contain the plants and keep weeds from encroaching. Also, the sides of the raised beds keep the rich soil and nutrients from washing away during heavy rains. My beds aren't full of soil because I need room to add compost each year. Each year the soil level grows just a bit. Eventually they'll be totally full. By then it'll be totally amazing soil with all the years of compost. Raised beds warm up faster in the spring. :)

[kimmiegirl1975]

Those are some tasty lookin fingers ....... you know those would be great cut up and sauteed in some sesame oil with some onion and egg and mixed in with some rice noodles.

[Praxxus55712]

oops, I drooled on my keyboard. :(

[kathinspain]

Hey, Ray. Do asparagus need cold or would they grow someplace that almost never even gets to freezing?? (for example, cherry trees will grow here but they won't fruit)

[Praxxus55712]

Kathinspain, Asparagus don't need freezing temps. It was actually grown a couple thousand years ago in hot areas such as Rome, Greece and Egypt and offered to the Egyptian gods as tribute or something like that. Apparently deities love asparagus but are too lazy to grow it themselves! LOL

[Radicalreels]

I've never tried to grow asparagus, I should try it?

[Praxxus55712]

Rad, you have quite a green thumb from what I saw of your patio gardening videos. Growing asparagus would be a breeze for you. :)

[crewlla]

oh my god. I was just thinking of you today when I went to buy my apple tree. whoo hoo I have an apple tree now. I also have a cherry tree. Jason wanted the cherry tree. we are going to go back for a peach tree but, the tag says its good for jams and pies. would you be able to eat them just from the tree? Thanks for mentioning me in your video. great minds think alike I was just thinking to day: every gardener gardens diffrently but we all get to the same result eventualy. :) :) :)

[Praxxus55712]

Oh yes, definitely. You can eat all fruit from the tree. What they usually mean when they say "Good for jams and pies" is that the peaches aren't the huge juicy georgia-type peaches. But they're still delicious, so no worries. Nothing makes me smile more than ripe cherries right from the tree on a nice summer day.

[frozentootsiepop]

Great video! I've been curious about asparagus growing for awhile now.. I do have a question.. for every root that you plant... do you only get three or four pieces of asparagus? I've watched several asparagus videos and it seems like that's all that is harvested and it seems like a long wait so for little reward. Do they send up tons of shoots?

[Praxxus55712]

frozentootsiepop, the sprouts you get seems to increase as the years go by. At least that's how it is for me. Some of my roots put out 12 sprouts, others put out only 6. They're 3-4 years old. The trick is to add as much compost as you can. They are compost hogs. The more you feed them, the better they'll put out. Also, when you clip the sprouts, more will pop up within a week or two. So you get alot. :)

[mywootgarden]

cool :D ive got some asparagus seeds sproutigng but ive heard you only get those shootss from the male plants...know if theres any truth to that? and nice to see your garden going great allready!

[Praxxus55712]

Woot, there's zero truth to that. You get sprouts from male and female plants. Seeds are only from female plants though. Also, sprouts tend to be thicker from male plants. I have a mix of males and females. I want the seeds to spread and make more plants.

[dipswell]

I planted mine about two weeks ago from roots and I wish I saw your vid first, because I just layed the root down in the hole on its side. I have a couple of sprouts so it may still take but hopefully wont cause any delays in my harvest. I am very impatient :) I must have missed the warning about asparagus making your pee smell funny, and eating it everyday for two weeks must be aweful...lol

[Praxxus55712]

dipswell, I guess for two weeks during asparagus season I'll keep people from smelling my......umm....pee? LOL (that cracked me up)

Ps: Asparagus harvest lasts for 2 weeks but I don't eat it everyday. There's not nearly enough for that. I eat it about twice a week or so. I totally love it! :) Oh and your plants will be fine. Just add compost each spring or fall.

[HLCpromow]

I have grown asparagus took me three years before my first harvest.  ( too eat )I to grew it from seed/roots. Its a fern kinda grows like a boston fern. I always cut mine back ever year. You have great info Thanks

[baconsoda]

Great video.  I don't like asparagus but I do like tomatoes so I have followed your method and repotted my transplants deep in the pot to promote root growth. Tomatoes are slow in the north of Ireland and don't ripen until September so hopefully your method might speed things up, I'll let you know and I'll do a video of my set-up here.

Thanks for doing these videos,

Best wishes,

Brendan (Ireland)

[Praxxus55712]

baconsoda, thanks! I'll be doing special step by step vids of tomatoes soon. Let me know when you get your video done ok? I'd love to see a real Ireland garden. Never seen one yet.

[baconsoda]

LOL, I'll do a video in the next day or two (if it stops raining) but, be warned, my garden is not a thing of great beauty, it is in a transition phase as I like to call it. I'll send you a message when it's up.

Brendan