86 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 378 



Plants grown in clay pots with transplanting solution added produced 

 a greater early yield than plants receiving any of the other treatments. 

 Plants grown in paper pots suffered from nitrogen shortage, but applica- 

 tions of a weak solution of nitrate of soda appeared to correct the de- 

 ficiency and these plants were among the highest yielders. 



The weight of individual fruits was not greater on plots with high yields 

 than on plots with low yields. 



The addition of transplanting solutions in most cases increased the 

 yield over the basic treatment. Transplanting solutions appeared to be 

 quite effective in encouraging a quick replacement of roots and in stimu- 

 lating early plant growth. 



This project is being summarized in the Proceedings of the American 

 Society for Horticultural Science. 



Asparagus Investigations. (Robert E. Young, Waltham.) 



Varietal Improvement. The yield records obtained for over 450 individual 

 asparagus plants in five different lines show that the plants derived from 

 high-yielding parents have greatly outyielded the commercial strain of 

 seed in the trial. This is the first full cutting season for the plots. The 

 two lines that had the greatest yield last year were the best producers 

 again this year. 



It was not possible to accurately forecast the relative rank of these lines 

 by comparing last summer's stalk growth. Using the total summer growth 

 for the four years, however, it was possible to forecast the rank in which 

 the six lines would fall in respect to this season's yield. By examining 

 the stalk count of last fall, it was also possible to pick out of all lines 

 those individual plants which were the highest producers this year. This 

 is a confirmation of former results obtained on the older plantings; counts 

 of the stalk growth produced each summer show that, for the four years 

 they have been growing, the plants produced the largest number of stalks 

 the first year. Cutting the plants for two weeks the third year reduced 

 the number of summer stalks remarkably. The full cutting this year did 

 not affect the plants quite so adversely. Apparently they were better 

 established. The variation in yield and stalk growth in any one of the five 

 lines is not as great as that in the commercial seed. 



When asparagus is compared with other vegetable crops, it can be 

 readily seen that considerable progress must be made before a variety of 

 asparagus can be established that would be comparable in uniformity of 

 performance to other vegetable crops. 



Depth of Planting and Height of Cutting. This project has been completed 

 and the most pertinent results published. Results of practical value to 

 asparagus growers are: 



1. Deep planting reduced stand, mostly in the first and second years. 



2. Deep plantings were slower to produce in the spring. 



3. Asparagus crowns sought the level best suited for their needs. Many 

 of the shallow-rooted plants went down and the deep-planted roots be- 

 came more shallow. The average for all plots was 4 to 4^/2 inches from 

 soil level to the top of crown. 



4. Cutting the spears with 4 inches of green, which is the length of 

 asparagus tips sold on some of our markets, did not give as high yields 

 per plant as cutting the spears with 8 inches of green, the way most grow- 

 ers cut. 



5. Allowing the spears to grow to 12 inches of green increased the yield 



