[AT] OT Redbud/asparagus

[Cecil Monson]

>
>
>--- Cecil E Monson <cmonson at hvc.rr.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>> 	George, my daughter has quite a large asparagus
>>> patch
>>> and hers is almost ready to get the first cutting.
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>> That first
>>> cutting is always a real treat.
>>> 
>>    
>>
>Cecil and all, a question.  Everyone is talking about
>"cutting" asparagus, around Michigan we "pick" it,
>literally.  Just grab hold and snap it off.
>

    It must be a regional thing. I've never known anyone who broke 
asparagus
off to pick it. Every place I've ever had asparagus or been where it was 
picked
a knife was always used to cut it. I guess the first one to teach me 
that was my
mother in sourthern Minnesota when I was a kid. I had my own patch years
later and never thought about using any other method. I guess as long as 
breaking
the stalks to pick it doesn't do any damage to the roots or the plant, 
it wouldn't
matter. I see a low of asparagus in the local supermarkets starting 
pretty soon
this time of the year and it seems to me that it is always cut and not 
broken off
to pick it.

    Same thing with clearing the old growth away from the patch. Most people
seem to leave their old stalks all winter and clean them up in the 
spring. I prefer
to clean them up in the fall and spread a straw mulch over the bed for 
the winter
with the belief it will start growing quicker and is better off not 
being disturbed
in the spring as it is getting ready to grow. Same with my garlic, it is 
better to
cover with a good 6 inch deep bed of straw in the fall to protect it in 
the winter
and leave it right there in the spring. The new shoots will quickly warm 
up and
come right up thru the straw in the spring. Leaving the straw there 
keeps the
moisture around the plants too in the summer and is a good thing to have.

Cecil