Hawai'i Gardens
Asparagus proves perfect crop for local farmers
By Heidi Bornhorst
We love to eat asparagus; it is both 'ono and nutritious.
Happily, asparagus, which hasn't been much grown in the Islands, is turning out to be a great crop for local farmers and consumers, and, according to the experts I spoke with, can also be grown in home gardens.
One O'ahu farm that will be flooding markets with asparagus soon is 40-acre Twin Bridge Farm in Hale'iwa, owned by Milton Agadair and Al Medrano.
The former sugar cane workers are operating with the help of grants designed to encourage development of new and diversified crops on former cane lands.
Among their advisers were John McHugh, formerly of the Hawai'i Sugar Planters Association and now co-owner of Crop Care Hawai'i, a consulting firm that helps assist and train local farmers with an emphasis on reducing use of pesticides on food crops, and his partner, horticulturalist and entomologist Lynne Kaneshiro Constantinedes.
When I talked to them, McHugh and Constantinedes waxed poetic (it was right before lunch) about the superior quality of locally grown asparagus when compared to imports.
Constantinedes explained that a peculiar attribute of asparagus is that it continues to grow after harvest. It is such a fast-growing plant that in California, before it's sent to market, packers put asparagus upright in boxes with two extra inches at the top.
It keeps growing during the week or so of shipping and the bottom of the stem becomes tough and woody. We usually snap this off and throw it away. But Constantinedes said the locally grown asparagus is so fresh that the entire spear is edible. McHugh and Constantinedes pulled some out of a field that was almost an inch in diameter and still crispy and tender.
Asparagus connoisseurs look for asparagus with "snap-to-it" freshness. If it doesn't snap, the texture won't be very good; if you try to snap many Mainland spears, they just bend and don't break, said McHugh.
If you want to grow asparagus at home, plant crowns or start them from seeds. They are forgiving plants, grow in almost any kind of soil, even calcareous (corally). Asparagus does well in soils with a high pH and can tolerate brackish water.
The best way to plant asparagus is to dig a furrow six inches deep. Dig up the soil and lomi it up to make it softer. Start from crowns purchased at a garden shop. Lay the crowns at the bottom of the furrow and cover with two inches of soil, but don't fill in the furrow completely.
After the spears start to sprout, over the next few months, slowly add more soil to the furrow until it is level with the rest of the garden. Organic matter and compost will help asparagus thrive.
Don't use an acid soil for asparagus; a pH of 6.5 is best. Test your soil at the University of Hawai'i, or with a pH kit, if in doubt. This is always a good idea, anyway, McHugh advises.
In six months to a year, the asparagus is ready to produce spears. To encourage the production of spears, clear the skinny ferny-looking growth to the ground so new, big, fat, tasty spears can come up. Then feed fairly generously with 10-30-10 fertilizer and water generously twice a day.
In three to four days, spears will come up from the ground, and that's what you harvest when they are 6 to 8 inches tall; cut them off at soil level.
You have to harvest probably twice a day because they grow so quickly; spears will grow an amazing 12 inches a day.
One caution: If you let a spear grow too tall, it will open up and become a lacy "asparagus fern," no good to eat.
The good news is that, in Hawai'i, the crop can grow year round. On the Mainland it goes dormant in winter.
Here, the best practice is to "trick" the asparagus into going dormant by drying the plants out for a month after harvest; give them no water during that time. This allows the plant to "rest" between production periods.
Heidi Bornhorst is director of Honolulu's five botanical gardens. her column is published in the Island Life section each Sunday.
