Vegetable Growing in Colorado. 
5 
inches apart in the row and about one inch deep. Seed may also 
be purchased from reputable seed houses. These plants will be 
ready for transplanting the following spring. 
Asparagus plants are either pistillate or staminate, the former 
producing the seed. It has been shown by experiment that the stam¬ 
inate plants produce the larger crop and these should be used when 
possible. It is hard to distinguish between the male and female 
plants before the end of the second year, when the seed are pro¬ 
duced for the first time. Therefore if plants are left in the seedbed 
until two years old, they may be separated and the male plants, only, 
used for planting. 
When ready to set out the plants, trenches or furrows four 
and one-half or five feet apart and six to seven inches deep are made 
in the field and plants set in the bottom of the furrows about two 
feet apart. When set, the plants are covered with two or three 
inches of soil. The furrow is not entirely filled at the time of plant¬ 
ing, but this is done gradually during cultivation. 
To grow blanched asparagus, the plants are usually set a few 
inches deeper. Clean cultivation is given during the summer, and 
before winter comes, the tops should be cut off and burned, after 
which a mulch of well rotted manure three or four inches deep 
should be put over the bed. This prevents rapid freezing and 
thawing during the winter, which is detrimental to the plants. Ma¬ 
nure which is free from weed seeds is best, and it may be worked 
into the soil in the spring. 
In the spring, the soil is loosened up by plowing to the depth 
of a few inches and cultivation is kept up throughout the summer. 
None of the young shoots should be cut the second spring, as the 
plants will be much stronger if left undisturbed until the third 
spring. The crop is given practically the same culture each year. 
Shallow cultivation is the rule during the summer and the old stalks 
are cut and burned after the berries have turned red. This is fol¬ 
lowed by the mulch of manure late in the fall. When the first 
shoots appear the third spring the soil is thrown toward the plants, 
hilling them up slightly. This is particularly desirable if bleached 
asparagus is to be grown. Soon after this, cutting of the young 
shoots begins and they are kept cut clean for six or seven weeks. 
After this, the shoots are allowed to grow in order to provide for 
next year’s crop. 
The shoots are cut with a knife, or they may be broken off just 
below the surface of the soil, after they have attained a length of 
six or eight inches. 
In growing bleached “grass,” the rows are hilled up. and when 
the tips of the shoots appear above the surface of the ridge, they 
