asparagus mulch

[JaneyB]

Hello. I wonder if anyone could advise me please. I am planting an asparagus bed. The area is weed free and the crowns are planted (I incorporated well rotted horse manure prior to planting).

I have access to a lot of stable manure but it is shavings based and very fresh. It comprises of urine soaked wood shavings and fresh droppings. I use it as a mulch around established fruit trees and currant bushes where it does a grand job of suppressing the weeds and hopefully feeding the fruit.

I’m wondering about putting a layer of it over the newly planted asparagus bed but working on the theory of not allowing fresh manure to actually touch plants, I’m concerned that as the new shoots come through the freshness of the mulch will scorch them. Any advise please? If it’s a no no how long should I store the shavings before I can use them in this way?

Many thanks,

Janey

[charles]

Janey you should be ok with that even if its not ideal practice: I suspect that the urine is either grabbed by the wood, or washed down by rain, there won’t be much hanging around to ‘scorch’ your asparagus shoots. Don’t put too much on.
I would also stack some in a heap for spreading next year, for better growth and more conservation of nitrogen.

[Rhys]

Janet

I’ve never treated asparagus in spring, but I’ve very successfully (two years running) put pretty fresh horse manure down as a mulch over the asparagus bed toward the end of November. Growth each year increased in terms of harvested spears. I”ve done similar over a rhubarb/comfrey bed as well.

So my experience is that by the time any vegetable starts to grow in earnest, the horse manure is stimulatory rather than damaging as a mulch.

[JaneyB]

Thanks Charles and Rhys for your comments. I’ve just realised that iIhave some bags of the stuff which is about six months old so I think I’ll use that now and use fresh stuff in the autumn. That way the spears won’t be coming up through the really fresh stuff. Thanks for your help.

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