Asparagus Cultivation Asparagus

Asparagus Cultivation

Asparagus is an economic value vegetable which is now being developed by farmers in Indonesia. These vegetables are sought after by housewives or restaurant chefs to be processed into food offerings. Asparagus plants are usually taken by the shoots or shoots, because this part is the most delicious part when processed into food. In addition to its deliciousness, it turns out that asparagus also has diuretic properties that are useful for smoothing the urinary tract so that it can improve the performance of the human kidney.

Cultivating asparagus itself is not difficult, but to get optimal results it is necessary to know the techniques and how to plant asparagus that is good and right. Following are the steps to cultivate asparagus.

Land Preparation

As with other plant cultivation, land preparation is important to do. Previously, the land needed to be cleared of weeds and done evenly. The land is processed in such a way and organic fertilizers are added such as manure or compost. Furthermore, beds were made of 120cm width, 20cm height and 40cm trench depth.

Seed / Seed Preparation

Asparagus nurseries can be done in two ways, namely by vegetative (tissue culture, shoots or cuttings) and generative (through seeds). Of all these methods, seedling using seeds is the most commonly used.

In preparation, the seeds / seeds to be sown need to be soaked in cold water first at a temperature of 27oC for 24-48 hours. During soaking, water is replaced 2-3 times while removing floating seeds.

Nursery

Asparagus seeds are sown on the soil with a spacing of 15x10cm with a depth of 2.5cm. Each planting hole is filled with one seed which is then covered with soil and straw at the top.

When in the nursery, seedlings need to be cared for to avoid pests. In addition, fertilization should be done every 20-30 days using organic fertilizer, compost or urea.

Transplanting

Seed transfer is carried out after seedlings are 5-6 months old. Things that must be considered in this transplanting are, among others, the transplanted seedlings are healthy seedlings, the seedlings that have been removed must be planted immediately, the roots are cut and left around 20cm and the shoots of plants are trimmed to plant height to 20cm only.

Planting should be done in the morning around 9 o'clock or evening around 4 o'clock. The planting distance used in this planting is around 40-50cm for the distance between plants and 25cm-1.5m for the distance between rows.

Maintenance

The maintenance stage that should not be missed in asparagus cultivation is pruning and subsequent fertilization. Pruning is done after the parent asparagus plants sprout about 8-10 buds, the rest are pruned. After approaching harvest time, only 3-5 stems can be kept. Meanwhile, supplementary fertilization is carried out routinely every month using chemical fertilizers and once every 3 months using manure.

Harvesting

Harvesting can be done when the aspargus has emerged above the surface of the soil with shoot buds that are around the age of 4-5 months after transplanting. If the first harvest is done at the age of 4 months after transplanting, then the second harvest is done at the age of 5 months with a harvest interval of 2 days, the 6th month and so on can be harvested every day. Harvesting can be done in two ways, namely by pulling out or by trimming the young stems. The best way to harvest is by pruning because it does not damage the root system of plants that will be used as broodstock candidates.