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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