56 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 441 



DEPARTMENT OF OLERICULTURE 

 G. B. Snyder in Charge 



Asparagus Investigations. (Robert E. Young, Waltham.) The second gen- 

 eration asparagus planting lias been cut now for seven full years and has about 

 reached the half-way point of economic production. The third cutting season 

 produced the greatest yield. The yield for 1945 was only 51 percent of this 1942 

 yield, and the 1946 crop although greatly improved was still only 71 percent of 

 the highest yield. 



An examination of the yield data indicates a decided tendency toward biennial 

 bearing not unlike that found in apples. While only seven years records are 

 available for study, there always have been alternate high and low yields; never 

 two successive increases or decreases. Attempts to correlate this rise and fall of 

 yields with rainfall have been unsuccessful, and there is only a slight relationship 

 to spring temperatures. As might be expected the highest producing strains show 

 the greatest variation in yield from season to season. 



This second generation of plants has spread out so far in the rows that it is no 

 longer possible to obtain accurate individual plant records as previously. Of the 

 plants whose accumulative yield places them in the top 50 (12 percent), only four 

 have been in this category all seven years. This also demonstrates the extreme 

 variation in production of asparagus plants. The male asparagus plant is con- 

 sidered the better producer and 72 percent of the plants in the top 50 are males. 



In 1942 plants which had started to produce high yields were chosen as parents 

 for the third generation. It is interesting to note that of ten so chosen nine re- 

 main in the top 50. A study of the yield records shows that very few plants 

 which produced well at the start have dropped, while there are some which started 

 poorly that are now yielding well. 



The highest yielding plant in the experiment is No. 4-79 which produced an 

 average of 2.6 pounds of asparagus per 3^ear as compared to the annual average 

 of 0.88 pounds per year for all the plants. 



To determine whether the high yielding plants can transmit this characteristic 

 to the next generation, a third planting was made using various combinations of 

 male and female plants previously described. This planting has been set for two 

 years, and the count of the summer stalks in 1946 followed the same pattern as 

 in 1945, with the most vigorous plants producing twice as many stalks as the 

 commercial varieties. 



Forty-six plants died during the second year which, with the 19 that died the 

 first year, makes a total of 63 out of 1900. Of those that died in 1946, half had 

 shown no weakness the previous year, which brings up the question of winter- 

 killing. There are five strains that still have a perfect stand and none of the 

 strains have lost over 5 percent; while the two commercial varieties have lost 11 

 and 13 percent. These plants did not die because the crowns planted were too 

 small, since there was no significant difference between the weight of the crowns 

 of the plants that lived and those that died. The data appear to indicate that 

 it is possible to breed a hardy strain of asparagus. Loss of pli-ats after an aspar- 

 agus planting has been established is one of the reasons for low yields and the 

 low economic returns from this crop. 



Vegetable Breeding for Improvement of Quality. (Robert E. Young, Wal- 

 tham.) During the year breeding work has been conducted with broccoli, 

 greenhouse cucumber, celery, rutabaga, New York type lettuce, tomato, carrot, 



