Moving Asparagus

[Fred]

Has anyone ever moved Asparagus? We have 4 plants around 8 years old, and 10 more at two years old.

The two year old ones only went in the ground last year as we grew them from seed, so I'm thinking they should be fine to gently tease them out from the ground and move them.

The 8 year old ones though I would imagine would be more difficult to get up without damaging the roots, but I would like to take them if possible as they taste fantastic and give a large crop for around 3 months or more.

I also wondered if it's possible to just shove a spade through them to split them up so you get more plants.

Any info, Thanks.

[Admiral]

Brave man.

Whatever you do DON'T use a spade. Only use a fork and gently tease around the whole crown to get as much of the roots out as possible.

Your older crowns will inevitably have very large and intertwined roots. This is when you get your hands dirty as you try to untangle each plant from its neighbour. Gently does it. Once done, give them a good drink in a bucket of water and transplant to your already prepared new bed.

You have prepared the new bed haven't you?

Best time to transplant is early spring as everything begins to warm up BUT you may not get a crop in the first year. If you've done the transplanting in a suitably professional Titchmarsh-style fashion you may then be thrilled at the bumper crop in the following year. If you are less than thrilled with your over abundance you could sell the surplus to SuperU. Possibly.

[Fred]

Whatever you do DON'T use a spade.

I thought of trying to chop the old ones with the spade just to see if it would work, sort an experiment as I wouldn't be to worried about loosing them. But the young ones I'm more worried about, though we do have about 80 more seeds should it go wrong.

You have prepared the new bed haven't you?

No not yet as we haven't done the final signature on the new place yet.

Best time to transplant is early spring

I did think that would be better than the Autumn, Thanks for that.

If you've done the transplanting in a suitably professional Titchmarsh-style fashion

I do nothing professional these days, it's usually have a go and see.

you could sell the surplus to SuperU.

Oh these are far to good for the supermarkets, they are not white, bitter, & floppy. They are British fine bred green succulent spears that go down very well with a nice knob of butter and a little sea salt and white pepper. Oh and they make a great soup too.