Asparagus crowns.........oh dear

[It never rains..it pours]

Having been at this game for 18 months, my biggest disapointment is my asparagus. Brought last autumn 40 mixed 1 year crowns from well known supplier, 20 seeds of Ginjilm at similar time and this spring 12 2 year Ginjilm crowns off ebay. The seeds look well with roughly 4 x 1 foot ferns each. The crowns are another matter and very mixed from 3ft to non exsistant.
Any advice to help the crowns along would be appreciated

[Bigmallly]

I put 15 huge crowns in earlier this year & have had no show.

[Guest]

That makes my 8 out of 24 seem rather good. Mine are seed grown though. I am hoping they are doing things underground and will appear next year. Have sown some 'all male' seeds this year just to cover some females and no shows. It is not as though gardeners can ever have too many plants

[Nicos]

I would also suggest that things are going on below ground.
They eventually have an enormous root system!...absolutely enormous !!!

Hopefully next year you'll be asking for 1001 asparagus recipes!!

[fishpond]

Having been at this game for 18 months, my biggest disapointment is my asparagus. Brought last autumn 40 mixed 1 year crowns from well known supplier, 20 seeds of Ginjilm at similar time and this spring 12 2 year Ginjilm crowns off ebay. The seeds look well with roughly 4 x 1 foot ferns each. The crowns are another matter and very mixed from 3ft to non exsistant.
Any advice to help the crowns along would be appreciated

It seems that the ground needs a lot of preparation beforehand--plenty of manure/compost and very good drainage.
What preparation did you do? Where did the crowns come from?
Did the crowns come with planting instructions?mine did and it said"Do not soak"(which was contrary to all the book advice) --just get them in the ground -then water!
I did all the ground prep, did not soak, and have 20 out of 20 coming up.

[Bigmallly]

I planted them as recommended, plenty of manure was added, crowns planted on mounds as suggested..........nada, zilch, nowt...............the roots were over a foot long.

[bario1]

How deep were the crowns? Maybe they're just a later variety? I'm sure they'll come up.

[Jonnyt]

I've had 3 out of 6 show above ground. Yesterday I decided to replace one with one I got from a Garden Centre that had already sprouted.

When I dug it up I found the roots had lots of new growth via little tendrils so it's my assumption that it will eventually stick a fern above ground so I replanted it.

Perhaps it's worth a furtle on the no shows to see if they look like they are growing roots?

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

Be Patient people! Honest!

[ecudc]

I think that if you'd planted in Autumn and the crowns havnt shown by now there is a high chance that they won't. They'll be a bit delayed due to transplant shock but on our Midlands allotment the first spears started coming in Feb this year due to the mild winter and the people with mature crowns are having to cut every day to keep up.

As you planted in spring then give them a few more weeks. It will take them a while to catch on. You can very gently scrape around a crown with your fingers to see if any shoots are forming. Be very careful though as it's really easy to snap new shoots.

[It never rains..it pours]

Thank you for all the replies

Yes I planted them as instructed

As advised above I carefully dug down to a few of the no shows

On the 2 year spring planted crowns, found they had 1" odd sprouts so as you suggest they maybe enjoying the soil, grit and muck mix so much that not rushing to come out and 90% should be achieved. Also think maybe a bit deep so have taken some soil off and will add later when hopefully in fern.

90% was what I got from seeds I did and have planted them out now.

However the 1 year crowns planted in autumn from a good online nursery dont look good underground and think 50% at best will come. Part reason maybe the post toke 8 days so very dry when arrived

[It never rains..it pours]

For information the well known online nursery have agreed to resend 20 1 year crowns this autmn to replace the 50% that have died, so cant be fairer