Putting my asparagus to bed

[Jenise]

Time to cover the bed with mulch, I remember that I'm supposed to do that. But do I trim off the ferns, or just let them rot under the mulch? Not going to do much photosynthesizing from here on out....

Here are what my instructions say:

Cut your dried ferns to the ground after the first frost, if you are in an area that doesn't get a lot of snow, and has bare ground for most of the winter. Make sure the plants are brown and dry. This prevents asparagus beetles from moving in and spending the winter. It also tells your asparagus plants that it is time to be dormant, so that they can rest until spring production time. If the ground freezes in your area, protect your bed with layers of newspaper, covered with a thick layer of straw or other airy mulch.

Leave the ferns in place if you are in an area that has snow on the ground for most of the winter. Those ferns will collect and hold snow, which will form an insulating blanket over your bed. Supplement this with layers of newspaper over your bed, covered with a thick layer of straw or other airy mulch. Allow snow to build up and stay on the bed. This provides even more protection.

Obviously the weather in Maryland is different than where you live but being lazy all I do is mow the ferns around this time and leave it alone. I have not had any issues and every year they come back bigger and better. After 5+ years I finally did add some compost but that is all I have done to the bed besides weed it since I initially planted it. From my experience, asparagus is not that fussy and you don't have to pay a lot of attention to it to still yield a decent crop.

[Jenise]

Obviously the weather in Maryland is different than where you live but being lazy all I do is mow the ferns around this time and leave it alone. I have not had any issues and every year they come back bigger and better. After 5+ years I finally did add some compost but that is all I have done to the bed besides weed it since I initially planted it. From my experience, asparagus is not that fussy and you don't have to pay a lot of attention to it to still yield a decent crop.

I'd gotten the opposite impression so that's reassuring! My only concern is that my bed is on the ocean side of the house and the winter storms that come direct from the south are brutal. Extra precautions, of the type Karen (thanks, Karen) detailed in option one are probably a good idea. Or at least, I'd feel better about it, especially in their first year.

In east central Wisconsin where we get minus 30 in February and mu asparagus patch is exposed to the west winds I leave the fronds intact and cut them down in the spring after the snow melts.
I have already put a thick layer of horse manure on top of the bed and spread it between the stalks.

[Robin Garr]

Let me check with Mary, Jenise, but I don't think we do anything special with the asparagus at all. Just let the ferns die down at the end of the year, and welcome the spears back in March. But of course, I could be wrong. I'll ask her in the morning and let you know.

Winter here is usually short and cold but rarely Arctic, sometimes a few days without going over freezing, but then a few more days when the nights don't go below freezing; typically a few light snows a winter but occasionally a deep one, and temps rarely dropping into the single digits. I don't know how that compares to where you are, but for us, it's clearly not asparagus-killing weather, and certainly no mulching or special preparations are required.

[Jenise]

Winter here is usually short and cold but rarely Arctic, sometimes a few days without going over freezing, but then a few more days when the nights don't go below freezing; typically a few light snows a winter but occasionally a deep one, and temps rarely dropping into the single digits. I don't know how that compares to where you are, but for us, it's clearly not asparagus-killing weather, and certainly no mulching or special preparations are required.

Our winters are very similar to yours, actually, but they last longer. This one is predicted to be a colder than average, though.

Jenise, just tossing my late two cents' worth in here, Karen's version conforms closest to what I understand to be the conventional wisdom. Leaving the fronds on and mulching is recommended in cold climate areas but even in a colder-than-normal winter and in our coldest stretches no more than an inch or so of ground freezes, not deep enough to threaten asparagus planted at normal depths. So the usual advice for the maritime West Coast would be to wait for the fronds to turn brown then cut them off and clean up any debris in order to prevent beetles from overwintering. Nothing else should really be necessary. I understand you want to play it safe, though, so if you want to mulch I would clean up as thoroughly as possible and then mulch (as Karen said) with something like shredded paper or straw. The trade-off you'd be making is that in exchange for the insurance against cold you might be providing shelter for those overwintering bugs in our (relatively) mild winters.

[Jenise]

Jenise, just tossing my late two cents' worth in here, Karen's version conforms closest to what I understand to be the conventional wisdom. Leaving the fronds on and mulching is recommended in cold climate areas but even in a colder-than-normal winter and in our coldest stretches no more than an inch or so of ground freezes, not deep enough to threaten asparagus planted at normal depths. So the usual advice for the maritime West Coast would be to wait for the fronds to turn brown then cut them off and clean up any debris in order to prevent beetles from overwintering. Nothing else should really be necessary. I understand you want to play it safe, though, so if you want to mulch I would clean up as thoroughly as possible and then mulch (as Karen said) with something like shredded paper or straw. The trade-off you'd be making is that in exchange for the insurance against cold you might be providing shelter for those overwintering bugs in our (relatively) mild winters.

So I might as well wait then. Mine are nowhere close to turning brown--shucks, it's been so warm my roses are trying to bloom. And...and...overwintering bugs? There's a threat I never considered.

Mine are nowhere close to turning brown--shucks, it's been so warm my roses are trying to bloom. And...and...overwintering bugs? There's a threat I never considered.

My little aspargus plot is also confused - still throwing up the occasional new spear as if it's springtime. When the cold comes, it may come as a bit of a shock. I have to admit the aspargus beetle thing is a problem I know of from reading, not something I've experienced myself. But cleaning up thoroughly in the fall is a good idea to help prevent a wide range of pest problems. There are a lot of bugs that go through a similar lifecycle: adults lay eggs in the fall as their final duty, eggs attached to plant litter survive on the ground for the winter, eggs hatch out into larvae that eat your plants (or suck on their juices) in spring, larvae develop into adults in summer and the cycle repeats. Cleaning up under the plants in the fall is often the easiest/greenest way to break the cycle.