BUD POPULATION DYNAMICS AND PRODUCTIVITY OF ASPARAGUS

As root mass increased the number of buds per unit root mass decreased, thus it is postulated that in well-grown asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) plants in deep soils bud numbers may well limit yield. A cutting height experiment that put variable demands on supplies of buds, but surprisingly not on carbohydrate use, indicated that, in the cultivar UC157, the number of large buds would limit the production of top quality spears. In larger plants it is to be expected that medium sized spears would start to limit harvestable yield. Specific spear size categories followed a Gaussian curve with large buds from the base of bud clusters forming the earliest population of spears, followed by populations of progressively smaller spears. In some clusters as spears were being harvested new buds were formed at the tip, contrary to the accepted view that buds do not start to form until fern establishment.