What it is
Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is in the Asparagaceae family. A patient perennial — wait two years, then harvest spears every spring for decades.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it moderate, and give it deep, well-drained, sandy soil. Target a soil pH around 6.5–7.5. Space plants about 12–18 in apart. Expect roughly 2–3 yr to first harvest. Hardy perennial (15+ yr).
How it's used
Asparagus is used: steamed, roasted, grilled.
🔎 How to identify it
- Spears emerge from a crown
- Feathery fern foliage if unharvested
- Red berries on female plants
Edibility
How to grow & propagate asparagus
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate asparagus
This family is propagated by division or by planting dormant crowns. Asparagus is the long game — plant one-year crowns and wait two full seasons before your first real harvest, but then a bed produces for fifteen or twenty years. The succulent members throw offsets ('pups') you can lift and pot up.
Growing asparagus in Texas
Give it full sun and deep, well-drained, sandy soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Because it's a perennial, the work is mostly up front. Get it sited and established and it comes back on its own year after year — one of the best returns on effort in the whole garden.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 2–3 yr to first harvest before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: young spears.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.