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Placing The Roots
The proper planting of the roots is the most critical point in asparagus
culture, as upon the manner in which this is performed--more than upon
other detail--depends the success, yield, duration, and profit of the
plantation. Almost any other neglect can be remedied by after-treatment,
but careless and faulty planting, never. Whatever care and personal
attention the grower may give to this work will be repaid manyfold in
future returns.
As stated before, only strong, healthy one-year-old plants with three or
four strong buds should be used, so as to insure an even growth over the
entire field, and at every stage of the work great care must be taken
not to expose the roots to the drying influences of sun and winds. When
everything is in readiness for planting, the roots are placed in the
trench, the crown in the center and the rootlets spread out evenly and
horizontally, like the spokes of a wheel, and at once covered with three
inches of fine, mellow soil, which is pressed around them. If the ground
is dry at planting-time it should be pressed down quite firmly about the
roots, so as to prevent their drying out, and to hasten their growth.
To still more insure success it is an excellent plan to draw up little
hills of soil in the bottom of the trench over which to place the roots
with the crowns resting on the top, thus raising the crowns a few inches
above the extremities of the roots and providing for them a position
similar to what they stood in before transplanting, as seen in Fig. 17.
The subsequent covering of the roots can usually be done with a
one-horse plow, from which the mold-board has been removed, passing down
the sides of the row. This leaves the plants in a depression, the soil
thrown out in opening the rows forming a ridge on each side, as shown in
Fig. 18. This depression will gradually become filled during the process
of cultivation the succeeding summer.
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Previous: Manner Of Planting
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