A new asparagus cultivation method for beginners: field tests on the whole harvest asparagus cultivation method of one-year-old plants

In Japan, open field cultivation of asparagus is based on seedlings planted in the spring of the first year. Spears of the same asparagus plant stocks are harvested in spring the following year for 10 to 20 years. However, this cultivation method has the following problems: the yield is small in the first year (the year after planting), the longer cultivation period, the higher risk of disease damage; and it is difficult to determine when to stop harvesting to grow mother fern (stocks). A study was conducted to examine the yields produced by asparagus cultivation beginners, involving 14-16 growers who had never cultivated asparagus before, using a new cultivation method called “Whole Harvest Asparagus Cultivation Method of One-year-old Plants”. All spears grown from stocks cultivated in the first year are harvested in the following spring. In the present study, two-year field tests of asparagus were conducted. In the first year, the yields produced by approximately 70% of the beginners were equivalent to or larger than the mean yield produced in open field cultivation of asparagus in Japan. In the second year, although the yields decreased due to typhoons, in open field cultivation of asparagus in Japan. The mean yield of all growers was equivalent to or larger than the mean yield produced by the conventional open field cultivation method.