This morning I picked 2.3 lb (~ 1 kg) of asparagus from the garden. We already had plenty left over from the day before so I sold these 4 bundles on the local buy/sell fb page. Its one of the few things our garden is producing in abundance at the moment. We discovered that we had spotted asparagus beetles a few weeks back, but Brock spent some hours squishing them by hand and I cleared out old debris from around the asparagus.
"The spotted asparagus beetle appears somewhat later, allowing the growth of fronds on which they deposit a single green egg. Larvae prefer to feed on the berries of mature asparagus plants. Within two weeks, they drop to the ground, entering the soil where pupation takes place. Ten days later the new adults emerge. "
So, it seems like we were able to clear out the ones we had and I havent seen any of the new asparagus spears grow in the "sheperds crook" that tells you the beetles/larvas are around. I weeded around the asparagus and we planted basil nearby the asparagus in one of the patches. And even though we have 60ish tomatoe plants I will sow a couple more tiny tims around the asparagus. Asparagus, parsley, basil and tomatoes is a excellent quartet that takes care of eachother.
The basil attracts ladybugs that eats the beetle larvae and the tomatoes deter the asparagus beetles themselves. Parsley and basil underneath asparagus to help with plant vigor but also help tomatoes grow better. Basil deters tomato hornworms while helping improve tomato flavor. The asparagus in turn help keep root knot nematodes from the tomatoes. The root knot nematodes survive by feeding directly off of the nutrients pumped through tomato roots.
The basil in the pictue is one of the propagated tips! I snipped them off the first set of plants that we grown from seed (i read that by doing this we would get a bushy basil plant, and its true) and put them in water, after a week plus some days they had enough roots so that I could put them in soil. This is what the root system looked like before i transplanted them to the garden.
So, for now, 1 -0 to us in the war against the asparagus beetles. The next battle I hope to win is against the white cabbage butterfly and its green little cattapillars - I made decoys. They seem to work. But thats a story for another post.
(All pictures by me or Brock, unless source is added)
I've learnt something wonderful from your post...on how to combat beetles.
Thank you for sharing this vital information with us - steameans.
You´re welcome! :D I´m happy to be able to help others with those little buggers, in a way thats not toxic!
Basil. I'll need some. The horn worms get bad here, even if I like having the hummingbird moths around.
I've only got the one plant, but plenty more seeds. I need to start over with a few tiny tims. Probably in a box with my next batch of compost. :)
mm and I dont think there is such a thing as too much basil! Its so good to take a couple of leaves and put in whatever food your making and it smells soo good!
oh still no luck starting the tiny tims?
I haven't gotten around to starting them a second time. I tried some direct sowing of another type, and that failed hard. I think I have a precious half a dozen tim seeds left. Don't wanna squander them.
ah I see. Hm, i know we had trouble starting seeds the first time around when we werent able to keep them moist enough to germinate. After that we got trays with lids and that keeps the moisture way better.
Brock just direct sowed some tiny tims outside in the garden, we will keep you updated on how that goes
Keep all of steem posted! Sounds like another good post series! :)
I did not know about the asparagus beetles good to know for the future. Aimee and I rented a place that had an old asparagus patch a few years ago. It was nice to have fresh asparagus in the spring and early summer.
What size of asparagus plot do you have to grow that quantity of asparagus? Where we were renting the plot was old and I don't think it was as productive as it could be.
Yeah I had no idea either, but so far it seemed like we are rid of them!
Its soo tasty to have fresh asparagus, the flavour is so incredible.
We got two patches, one is 8 - 10 feet long and 3-4 feet wide and the other one is about 5 feet wide and 7 feet long. The spears it produces are crazy thick, about an inch in diameter. Before we moved in nobody was really harvesting the asparagus, its just been abandoned for a couple of years. But the patches are old.