How does white asparagus grow

If you want to buy fresh white asparagus in the UK or USA you will need to search it out or buy it imported online. Beware it can be very costly! If you want to try the canned variety you will get thin stalked jars if you look at the top of many supermarket shelves at simliar prices to green canned asparagus. However if you want to try the big jumbo stalked spears you will probably need to buy online and again prices can be steep.

The first thing to say about spargel is that it must be peeled. Once the outer layer is peeled away cook it as for green asparagus. The Germans typically eat fresh spargel with cooked or cured ham and new potatoes and often add a hollandaise sauce. We have a few canned asparagus recipes and will be bringing you more recipes using this vegetable in due course.

Recipe Page. We have our own Asparagus Growing Expert ready to answer any questions we can't answer so ask away. Sun-tinged pink or purple tips will also land in a lower class. The high price and the intensity of the labor have contributed to an increase in cheaper foreign labor. This year, the Rutch family is hosting an all-female team of workers from Slovakia. While the fields require no extra watering since asparagus retains water, Rutsch spends a lot of money on water to clean the shoots once they are harvested.

Since the s, many asparagus farmers in Germany have implemented a method of insulation to warm the soil by covering the mounded rows with heavy plastic sheets. Presumably, the soil stays warmer, the shoots grow faster, and the farmer achieves a higher yield. He sticks with the old methods his father and grandfather used. Our product should be good for our consumer, without any question marks.

Rutsch eschews harvesting asparagus with machines as well, a practice he says he would never adopt. Harvesting by machine would diminish freshness, and he insists on selling fresh asparagus daily. On a typical morning during the season, workers will have harvested, washed and trimmed their daily yield by and by early afternoon, Rutsch and his wife will have sold out until the following day.

He points out that people are becoming more educated about food. They are looking for freshness and are not only thinking about their wallets. Proper spacing minimizes pests and disease.

Cover the crowns with soil until their tops sit 2 inches beneath the surface. Water the asparagus bed once weekly and provide about 1 inch of water each time. Pull any weeds that grow in the bed immediately so they don't establish themselves. Water the plants near their base to prevent wet foliage and minimize rust problems.

Fill in the trench with soil gradually as the first spears grow. Do not harvest any spears the first two years after planting, so the asparagus can establish healthy roots. Build up a mulch or soil layer around the spears as they grow the first year you plan to harvest. You see, white asparagus is green asparagus, only blanched.

To grow white asparagus, you need to block all light from the growing spears. There are several ways this can be done: A Tub In early spring, when the spears first start to break through the ground, invert a completely opaque plastic tub and place it over the plants. Make sure there are no holes in the tub—even small amounts of sunlight will prevent the spears from being completely white. Darker colored tubs work much better than lighter colored ones that may be somewhat translucent.

Leave the tub in place, checking under it every evening and harvesting any spears that are 6 to 8 inches long. A Soil Mound Block light from developing spears by mounding soil up over them.