[TexasTea]

I planted 16 asparagus crowns in late March and only three of them sent up shoots. Now that its mid July, should I assume that the other 13 crowns will not grow? I dug up one of the non-growing crowns and the roots seemed like they might be growing. Can the crowns remain dormant this year and then start growing again next spring?

 

[stephanie]

yes they can, but asparagus prefers cool weather and will send down deep roots,loose sandy well drained soil and require a lot of manure(topper when dormant). they prefer horse since it isn't broken down as much in the digestive track. That is a native plant to my state and in spring you can walk the ditches in eastern wa and harvest it. Asparagus doesn't like to be saturated either too much watering can kill them off. it can be picky. keep trying you may have to add crowns every year for a few years to get enough worth harvesting.
but once established it will come back for at least 15 yrs