10 BULLETIN 84, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Seedling plants have often produced by the following spring roots 
large enough to give a small crop of shoots, but it is advisable to 
delay cutting the crop until the second year in order not to weaken the 
plants at first — following in this practice that usual with asparagus. 
THE BLANCHING OF THE SHOOTS. 
The stems of the udo when green are rank in flavor, and although 
the green shoots when pulled, peeled, and stewed are said to make 
excellent greens, it is the blanched shoots first produced in the spring 
that form the table delicacy. The blanching of these shoots has been 
done in a variety of ways. At first the method followed was that of 
mounding up the earth over each plant in early spring, but in this 
climate it was found that the late frosts make the soil too cold, and 
Fig. 9. — Udo planting at Baddcck, Nova Scotia, showing on the right two niuunds of 
earth which cover plants which were cut down in midsummer. The shoots blanched 
under these mounds were of excellent quality. While successful in the cool summer 
of Nova Scotia, this method will probably not be practicable in warmer climates. 
the shoots are slow in coming through it. (Fig. 9.) In California, 
however, on the asparagus lands near Antioch, on the Sacramento 
River, Mr. TT. H. Meek has produced excellent udo by mounding up 
the hills, much as he does those of asparagus; but there the soil is 
almost as light as sawdust. 
A very satisfactory method for blanching udo in a small home 
garden is to put over each hill before growth starts in the spring a 
large draintile which has one end plugged with a cement cap or 
covering. The shoots coming up inside of the tile are well blanched, 
and this method has the advantage of making it possible to examine 
the shoots at any time to see how they are coming along. It has 
at least one disadvantage, however, in that the shoots have a tendency 
to leaf out and produce a number of unopened leafstalks which take 
