Asparagus is an ambassador of spring. When the first tender spears appear in local restaurants, we know that spring is in full swing. From April to June, we indulge in this elegant vegetable, which makes a delicious and healthy side dish. But we don’t need to limit our asparagus season to 3 months. We can grow asparagus hydroponically and savor it all year round.
And here, we got the upper hand over mother nature (just a little), because normally asparagus goes dormant for the winter months. It’s a perennial and like many of its kin gets inactive in winter, preserving and accumulating resources for the spring boost.
But if we grow asparagus hydroponically, we can avert the dormant stage, and our asparagus plant can thrive throughout the year.
In this article, we’ll share our experience in growing asparagus hydroponically, and hopefully, our tips can help you in your challenge of growing hydroponic asparagus successfully.
Contents
Asparagus. The basics
Asparagus has been known for 3 thousand years and comes mostly from the Mediterranean area and some other parts of Europe, though it can be found more to the south too. It’s still the most popular in these areas.
Generally, asparagus is a temperate zone plant, which loves the sun and warmth. We are most familiar with the green variety. It has a pleasant tangy taste with a hint of bitterness. The less-known varieties are purple and white. They have a more tender flavor, and the bitterness is almost non-existent. Instead, purple asparagus has a slight sweetness in taste.
There is also a cute houseplant called asparagus fern, which has bright green leaves and is simply adorable.
We can call asparagus a Superfood without a doubt. The vitamins it contains make this vegetable a very healthy addition to an everyday diet plan. Vitamins A and E, Vitamin C, and several microelements are good arguments in favor of asparagus.
It’s a very popular side dish because it looks really elegant, is low in calories, and tastes delicious. Asparagus is also widely used in salads. Soups with it are delicious.
Hopefully, our pitch worked, and now you want to grow asparagus in a hydroponic system.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, hydroponic asparagus doesn’t need to go dormant and can be active during the winter months.
What asparagus needs to thrive
Now let’s talk about the conditions that asparagus requires, and how we can meet them if we grow it hydroponically.
Light or shade
Asparagus loves the sun. When grown outside, it should be given the brightest spot and it thrives in the sun’s rays.
With an indoor garden, artificial lighting may be a necessity. Set your LED lights for a 12/12-hour cycle: 12 hours with the light on, followed by 12 hours with the light off. This way, your asparagus plants will get the optimum amount of lighting. And this schedule more or less simulates the natural day/night cycle.
Warm or cool
This plant loves the warmth and is quite sensitive to temperature shifts. Too high and too low temperatures can be harmful to asparagus plants. There is a risk for the plants to go dormant if the temperature stays too low.
We should keep them in the range from 75 °F to 85 °F, a little lower at night, but never allow it to fall below 60 °F. The sign that the plant is comfortable is when it starts actively growing.
Essential nutrients
The most critical supplement that we need to provide for asparagus is nitrogen. Whether you grow it in the outdoor garden, or you went for hydroponic asparagus, it doesn’t matter.
Two more essential elements are potassium and phosphorus. They are needed in smaller amounts, but we shouldn’t forget about them either.
Choose an appropriate nutrient solution and feed the plant. Make sure that you use a balanced nutrient solution.
Hydroponic garden
It makes sense to remind you now what the hydroponic system is.
Hydroponics is gardening without soil. Instead, water and nutrients are used to sustain the plants. To grow hydroponically, you’ll need a plant (almost any plant, actually), a container, the tools to fix the plant, water, nutrients required for that plant, and light. That’s all.
Hydroponic asparagus. Fresh homegrown veggies all year round
Hydroponics is an excellent way for growing asparagus. First, we can avert the dormant period because it will develop in a temperature-controlled environment.
Next, when grown a traditional way, a productive asparagus bed requires soil with high nutritional value, and in hydroponic systems, it’s easy to provide.
Also, we can have several harvests per year because of the stable temperature.
And at last, we’ll be able to save water, which is one of the ecological advantages of growing hydroponic plants.
And now let’s follow the process of growing asparagus hydroponically.
Cultivating asparagus
Seeds or crowns are two ways to propagate asparagus plants. Asparagus seeds are used more often, but we’ll provide you with information about both methods.
Seeds. Growing asparagus from seeds is a slow process, but as this plant is a perennial, you’ll have to do it once and then harvest your asparagus for more than 10 years.
Before setting the asparagus in the hydroponic garden, we need to germinate the seeds. It takes up to 2 weeks for the seeds to germinate and grow to 3-4 inches in height and for the root system to grow enough. Then they are ready for transplant. It’s time to move them to hydroponics.
While the seeds are germinating, the climate conditions should remain mild and warm —70 °F-79 °F. And we always keep the same temperature. Asparagus is sensitive for that matter.
We water them regularly, making sure we don’t overdo them. Our goal is moist soil, not soaking wet.
Crowns. When we go to the nursery and buy asparagus crowns, we purchase a year-old asparagus. This way, we skip the germination process. The plant looks like a central fleshy crown and root system underneath.
Interesting fact: asparagus male plants have a better reputation than female ones. They are said to be more productive and have longer life.
Unfortunately, when we use crowns propagating asparagus, we risk buying infected plants. Before we purchased asparagus crowns, they could have been exposed to soil-borne diseases. So, it’s critical to ensure that before planting asparagus crowns, we need to sanitize them with a special sanitizing solution.
Hydroponic systems for asparagus. Options to choose from
At last, we came to a hard choice — the choice of the hydroponic system from the available options. We’ll just describe them, and you make the best decision.
Ebb & Flow
Ebb and Flow is an excellent and sophisticated system well suited for growing asparagus plants. It can host 48 pots with plants, each of them two-layered to let you watch the asparagus roots and the growing process and have quick access to the roots.
There is a timer for nourishing the roots with the nutrient solution, which is then returned to the tank.
The system is also equipped with an emergency light and a shut-off valve.
Deep water culture
Another great setup for growing hydroponic asparagus. A lot of hydroponic gardeners make their choice in favor of this system for growing asparagus indoors and outdoors as well. It includes a spacious container enough to hold 3-5 gallons of liquid.
This container is half-filled with the nutrient solution. Crowns of asparagus are planted in the solution without making the space crowded. This system allows the plants to consume oxygen from the water in the most efficient way.
One more perk of deep water culture is the very low level of water because it doesn’t evaporate.
Nutrient film technique
This system is also a great provider of oxygen and allows almost no evaporation.
A well-balanced nutrient solution runs through a watertight gully directly to the exposed roots, nourishing them. It’s ideal for a plant like an asparagus, as it better suits light plants, and asparagus is light and doesn’t need too much support.
Kratky
This system is called passive. It doesn’t need electric power to function and is quite easy to set up and look after.
The plant’s roots are lowered into the tank with a nutrient solution (like perlite). The solution runs from the tank to the growing chamber and back with the help of a small pump. This way, the plants have a never-ending supply of everything they need.
Dutch bucket
There are two buckets in a Dutch bucket system. In the first bucket, the plant is growing, and the second bucket is for the solution of nutrients that flows between the buckets and nourishes the plants.
This system is excellent and is often used for hydroponic asparagus production, including commercial hybrid asparagus varieties.
Harvesting. The reward for hard work
When you grow asparagus hydroponically, you have to be patient, waiting at least a year. And if you used seed propagating, even more.
We need to give the asparagus a chance to grow enough. Experienced gardeners recommend limiting the first harvesting period to 2 weeks. The second one can be extended to 3. The plant is still young, and you don’t want to traumatize it.
We harvest when the asparagus spears reach 5 inches. Just snap the spare holding the base, but you can also use a knife if you prefer it.
We don’t recommend leaving any plants spearless, especially during the first couple of years. Always leave some spears intact. This way they will enter an active growing stage faster. And flowering is also good for them.
To recap
Hydroponics asparagus is an excellent choice if you decide to try hydroponics. This plant is not hard to grow or maintain. You may use almost all the popular hydroponic systems and harvest asparagus in large quantities already next year.
You can also try growing other vegetables like good old tomatoes or fancy modern hybrid plants.
Hydroponics is an amazing sustainable system.
We hope we encouraged you enough, and you’ll give hydroponics a chance and maybe in combination with a tasty and healthy vegetable called asparagus.
