Velocius quam asparagi coquantur
Faster than asparagus can be cooked
Ascribed to Augustus by Suetonius in Th
This phrase can refer to anything done very quickly.
A common variant is celerius quam asparagi cocuntur - "faster than asparagus is cooked".
"List of Latin Phrases"
Asparagus
Wikipedia
Dear D,
Concerning variety selection, I recommend the following webpage by Henry G. Taber and Vince Lawson, Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University. http://www.public.iastate.
In the past, I have bought lots of stock from both Miller Brothers (in Canandaigua, New York, where Dad briefly lived as a boy) and Stark Brothers in Lousiana, Missouri.
Recently, with the passing of the Miller family "patriarch," Miller Brothers merged with Stark Brothers.
Currently Stark is offering a 10% discount to established Miller customers like us.
I recommend Stark Bros' over Burpee. (The latter sells good product but is glitzier, more "corporate" and - I assume - less connected to the earth than Stark.)
And here is a blog post from "Chiot's Run," an "organic life" blog that makes a number of useful points -- including the recent "finding" that shallower planting is better than traditional deep trenches. http://chiotsrun.
Rob: What do you think of the "shallower planting" rationale?
Chiot's article also includes a helpful photo, showing depth and spacing.
Excerpt:
Planting asparagus is fairly easy, although if you search for information on how to do it on-line you’ll come up with conflicting information. After reading a few different ways of doing it, I decided to plant mine a little more shallow than is recommended. I found some information from Ohio State University that said plants were more productive and lasted longer if not planted as deeply. The location of my asparagus bed also has fairly heavy clay soil beneath the soil I amended. I wanted the crowns to be above the level of clay so I planted them about four inches below the soil level. The purple asparagus is planted 6-8 inches apart and the Jersey is planted 12-18 inches apart.
I added some bone meal at planting time to help with root development and I mulched well with shredded fall leaves. After about 5 days most of the crowns were putting up thin spears. It looks like every single crown has sprouted. Fertilize your asparagus patch with a well balanced fertilizer in spring before spears emerge and with a higher nitrogen fertilizer in summer after harvest. I like to use a mix of kelp meal and fish meal in spring and well rotted chicken manure in summer/fall.
Next year I’ll be able to harvest a few spears from this new bed. Some places will tell you not to harvest any, but I have read that harvesting a few spears will help stimulate the crowns to produce more buds thus making the plants more productive in future years. The second year I’ll be able to harvest a few more spears over the course of a 4-6 week period. My real reward will come in 2014 and beyond when I will have asparagus on my table for about 6-8 weeks each spring.
I’ve been trying to add more perennial edibles to my gardens to lessen soil disruption and asparagus is one step in that plan. Read my post at Your Day on Ethel about my plans for even more perennial edibles in the garden.
On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 7:10 AM, DD wrote:
No worries. I think Alan got the Jersey Giants too when he got the
ones we planted 20 years ago... or one of those Jersey varieties.
They do seem more productive. I just wondered if the others might do
better in a spot that didn't get full sun. I haven't read anything
more about that anywhere, so I'll probably just get the Jersey Knight
Giants. Thanks!
On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 2:23 AM, RD wrote:
> Mary Washington is so "old school". I don't really have an informed
> opinion, but I say go with the Jersey Knight Giants.
>
> At one point I actually researched the literature in terms of yields and I
> think I recall the newer varieties being much more productive, but I would
> need to dig up those papers. I probably won't be able to look for this until
> Monday.
>
> Rob
>
> On Feb 28, 2014 10:27 PM, DD wrote:
>>
>> This one is cheaper and it says it grows in part sun... maybe it would
>> be better for my location....
>>
>> http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/asparagus/ asparagus-mary-washington- prod000569.html?catId=2003& trail=
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