ASPARAGUS 13 



ture plants, under the best conditions, will sometimes 

 yield three shoots daily. Shoots counting nine to the 

 bunch are on record. It is safer, however, to count on 

 two shoots to the plant, twenty to the bunch, in which 

 case, with ideal gardening conditions, ten plants will 

 yield a bunch a day. 



But in setting out a bed it must be remembered 

 that there are periods of immaturity and old age when 

 the yield is small, so that it would be wiser to count on 

 twenty to twenty-five plants to the bunch as an average 

 yield. And finally, if the growing, feeding, and care of 

 the plants are not to be of the very best, fifty to sixty 

 plants to the bunch may be necessary. 



The daily yield depends much upon the weather, 

 cold nights often temporarily checking growth. 



The life of a bed depends upon the feeding of the 

 plants, their distance apart, and the severity of cutting. 

 Good commercial growers seldom keep a bed longer 

 than fifteen years ; for the home garden, where greater 

 care may be given, and the cutting is moderate, the 

 plants may be kept considerably longer, or say twenty 

 years, in good bearing, although many beds of much 

 longer life are known. 



The replanting of a bed may be done on the same 

 ground, by taking out alternate plants or rows of 

 plants and putting in new, so that the bed will still 

 yield a small crop. 



Varieties of Asparagus are few and not very sharply 



