A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Frozen Asparagus

so I finally waded-(much rain here) out to my raised garden to check how my asparagus fared with the several nights of below freezing weather. They did not--most of the stalks, if not all, are frozen.--
will the plant itself survive? --I cannot ever remember having this problem "at the farm"--but surely we have had weather like this in years past -----luckily I did have a few meals from my bed before this happened------

Actually, I just read up on this!
Asparagus is a perennial, so it should come back!

Some other points to the article:
The first year, let all the spears shoot up and leaf out. This helps to nourish the growing roots which, in turn, supply the rhizomes with nutrients to feed the plant.
The second spring you can harvest some of the shoots, but when the shoots begin to look spindly, let them grow up and leaf out.
By the third spring, the asparagus should produce spears in full force over a long season (8-12 weeks!)

It also says that by early summer, when spears are less than 1/4 in. wide, stop harvesting and let those spears develop ferny foliage (which builds food reserves for next year's crop.) In cold winter climates, leave the dried growth over winter so it can catch insulating snow, then remove the foliage in early spring.

Hope this helps,
JoAnn

hello---This is the 2nd year for this bed--(we moved a few years back) I had just harvested a bit of my new asparagus and then the late freeze hit---perhpas it will come back this year to help with next year--& I guess I will leave well enough alone, and not harvest any more this year :( ---but thanks for your help--and while I HAD left the asapagus go over last winter I did not really know what I was doing--but apparently I did good!!!

good news--good news---my asparagus did not die out as a result of the freeze. But is is slow coming back. I was so happy to see it living I weeded & mulched & fussed with it quite a bit on Saturday---and with the rains supposedly coming all is well--but I am thinking I will not harvet anymore this season---