Professor Emeritus Dr. Steve Garrison notes the 1970 growing season shared similar conditions to the 2011 year. Excessive moisture caused severe disease infection and a weakened crop the next spring. Harvesting beds for the traditional 8 to 10 week period the next growing season caused further stress on beds and many beds never recovered.
-Michelle Infante-Casella & Andy Wyenandt
Asparagus is a high value, perennial vegetable crop grown in New Jersey for both retail and wholesale distribution. Today, 1,000 acres of asparagus are grown in the state. In years when the growing season includes many days of rainfall and high humidity asparagus ferns remain wet for long periods of time, and foliar diseases can flourish and negatively impact the health of the crop. When these conditions occur ferns can die prematurely before the translocation of carbohydrates (i.e., next season’s energy source) can reach the crown. In the fall, ferns will begin to senesce or die back naturally, first turning yellow and then drying back to a tan color. If foliar diseases prematurely kill the fern this natural die back does not occur and the energy needed to support strong, healthy, and prolonged spear production the following spring is greatly compromised. Additionally, crowns that are weak and unnourished will also be more susceptible to diseases like Fusarium crown and root rot caused by F. oxysporum f. sp. Asparagi.
Many of the asparagus varieties now have tolerance to the common diseases that infect the crop. However, under extreme environmental conditions and with weakened growth, the crop can succumb to infection, causing future yield decline and crop damage.
Professor Emeritus Dr. Steve Garrison notes the 1970 growing season shared similar conditions to the 2011 year. Excessive moisture caused severe disease infection and a weakened crop the next spring. Harvesting beds for the traditional 8 to 10 week period the next growing season caused further stress on beds and many beds never recovered.
To avoid stressing asparagus beds it is important to monitor harvest very closely during the first week of cutting the spring following a season with severe foliar infection. If daily bed yields have dropped off from previous years, or spear diameter starts falling off quickly during early harvest, the harvest season needs to be shortened dramatically to protect the future investment life of the production field. The over cutting of beds will be detrimental to the long term future health of the field. Even if prices are high towards the end of harvest, one should think long term when considering cutting asparagus fields. A healthy and productive asparagus field is a long term investment.
-Michelle Infante-Casella, Agricultural Agent, Rutgers NJAES Gloucester County &
Dr. Andy Wyenandt, Rutgers NJAES Vegetable Pathologist
