Hi,
I would like to hear from anyone who�s willing to share their experience on growing asparagus in Hawaii. I read though some of the old posting on asparagus growing made by "love4gardening" and "mauirose", and would like to get an update from them and others on how they are doing.

This is my experience with asparagus:
About 9 months ago, I planted some asparagus seeds (Mary Washington variety) in about 12 starter pots, thinking that I�d soon be planting it in my backdoor garden plot, and soon start to have some asparagus shoots to harvest.

After doing some online research, I realized that it�ll take about 2 to 3 years before I�ll be able to get a reasonable harvest from my plants. And, if I wanted a sooner harvest I should be planting the established crowns (roots)m, vice the seeds. Also, it I went with the "all-male" asparagus hybrid varieties such as the "Jersey" vice the older, open-pollinated male/female varieties, such as 'Mary Washington.� I�d get about a 30% greater yield from my plants.

About 2 weeks ago, I planted about 25 crowns of two-year-old Jersey Supreme that I purchased online. I followed the CTAHR Asparagus planting instructions posted in this forum several years ago by Mauirose (Mahalo to Mauirose). The modifications that I made were, I used compost that I got from Hawaii Earth Products (real cheap), and mixed that with composted chicken manure, Pearllite, and lime that purchased from either HD or WM. Since, I could not find any triple super phosphate (0-46-0) available locally, I used instead 8-24-8 slow release fertilizer. Also, since I lacked space in my plating bed, I completely covered the crowns with the compost mix to the top of the bed, vice via 3 inches at-a-time as the shoots grow.

Ten days after planting the crowns, asparagus shoots started popping out to the ground. As things stand today, about half of the crowns have produced pencil-sized shoots. I�ll be interested to find out how many of the 25 crowns actually make it and produce ferns.

Anyway, this is where I stand today, and will post updates, If anyone is interested.

Mahalo, Gadget