# Asparagus Beetle



## Take'm (Dec 6, 2011)

I'm wondering what any of you do with your asparagus garden when the asparagus beetle shows up? The darn things are causing pretty substantial harm to my plants and I'm not willing to let them win with all the effort I have (years in the making) to get this patch to where it is. Any help is appreciated.


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## MasterBaiters (Jul 13, 2017)

Malathion


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

I use a weak amount of Sevin with a hand sprayer. If you walk slow you can catch them on the the plant before they fly, spray only the Beatle. Just be careful not to spray any of the small 1/4" of smaller Asparagus Wasps. If you do this twice in a week then you can cut back to walking it once a week. I originally purchased my Wasps and brought them in my field. My field is tilled and 180 yards in length.
There are eight Wasps that go after the two different Asparagus Beatles, I have both in my field. 

"Researchers in the MSU Vegetable Entomology Laboratory have found eight morphologically different species of wasps that emerged from pupae of the asparagus miner."






The asparagus miner and its natural enemies in Michigan


Better understanding of asparagus miner biological control can contribute to management of this important pest.




www.canr.msu.edu





I have a lot of damage from these guys pictured below. Certain Deer will eat it and increase eating it as they seem to become addicted to eating Asparagus. The damage happens after you quit picking and let the plants grow. They will eat the tops and deform the plants for the summer. It seems now there is about a three week timeline were I have to walk the field cutting damage plants down to have them sprout up correctly. On another side note there are areas were there might be 2 or 3 feet with no plants growing in the line. 80% of those bare areas had plants on each side thick with seeds this past fall, a pretty amassing plant!


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Chessieman said:


> ...................
> They will eat the tops and deform the plants for the summer. It seems now there is about a three week timeline were I have to walk the field cutting damage plants down to have them sprout up correctly.
> ........


It matters that an asparagus plant is deformed after it goes to seed ?

L & O


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

They will grow but the branch and leaf branch's will be way down as much as 75%. Sure they will grow but not to the optimum. If you have a older plant ball growing let's say that it will throw up 8 to 12 shoots that you have not harvested. Your plant is now spending time growing stems and leaves rather than roots. The root ball is what you want to grow with numerous new stem shoots on that ball to harvest I have root balls throwing up over 14 -20 new shoots per ball, that equals to a little less than a pound a plant per picking. For the last picking I like to harvest all but a few of the shoots, once they start to branch out they no longer throw new shoots. The Pencil size ones I like to harvest anything that comes up for the first month and force anybody coming out to pick to comply. These are supper tender anyway, this encourages the sprout nips (?) to form on the root balls which intern means any nips will throw up new shoots next year. Train these plants, remember they will get 30 years plus old. Just for some information attached is a plant grown from seed and the first years growth. Notice the ball forms 4" below ground level.


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## Take'm (Dec 6, 2011)

Chessieman said:


> They will grow but the branch and leaf branch's will be way down as much as 75%. Sure they will grow but not to the optimum. If you have a older plant ball growing let's say that it will throw up 8 to 12 shoots that you have not harvested. Your plant is now spending time growing stems and leaves rather than roots. The root ball is what you want to grow with numerous new stem shoots on that ball to harvest I have root balls throwing up over 14 -20 new shoots per ball, that equals to a little less than a pound a plant per picking. For the last picking I like to harvest all but a few of the shoots, once they start to branch out they no longer throw new shoots. The Pencil size ones I like to harvest anything that comes up for the first month and force anybody coming out to pick to comply. These are supper tender anyway, this encourages the sprout nips (?) to form on the root balls which intern means any nips will throw up new shoots next year. Train these plants, remember they will get 30 years plus old. Just for some information attached is a plant grown from seed and the first years growth. Notice the ball forms 4" below ground level.
> 
> View attachment 830959


Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience! If spraying only the beetle I suppose I can just forge ahead hand picking/squishing them as my patch is only two rows about 15' long. Where did you buy your wasps from? That concept seems quite intriguing. Finally, if you have new plants (2 year crowns) planted last year, do you still cut those back to just a single fern or two?


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

Mine is 180 yards long in three rows on a south facing hill angled and tiled in the three lower areas. Being I have east winds from LH if the wind dies down, it is protected from that. I put mine in from seed making a special plow for a buddy of mine that was putting in a small commercial acreage. You are better just to squish them if you are fast enough. It was ten years ago when I bought the Wasps so I am not sure. About your question about picking and leaving; pick them as much as you can at 8" high to develop the nips. Leave two up when finished just incase you loose one during the summer. They will replace the shoot if cut during the summer but is stressful. Going to be another sore back today for the 15 pound pick and only 30% of mine are coming up with the water we have.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

Do you sell asparagus from your house ? South facing slope....explains why it's ready for picking. I do not have garden asparagus anymore so I rely on finding wild asparagus.

L & O


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## MasterBaiters (Jul 13, 2017)

Liver and Onions said:


> Do you sell asparagus from your house ? South facing slope....explains why it's ready for picking. I do not have garden asparagus anymore so I rely on finding wild asparagus.
> 
> L & O


Gotta admire Chessie with all that work.Yup we do our picking in our patches which are 100 s of miles long bordering the county ditches and roads.lol. Not uncommon to fill an entire shopping bad in an hour or so.Also allows for the leisurely consumption of a beverage or two.Gotta keep hydrated!


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## Take'm (Dec 6, 2011)

Couldn't agree with you more on Chessie's dedication. That's why I asked my question above too. I don't want to pick off/spray beetles all harvest season long for the next 30 years. Hoping I don't have to cut bait and revert to a locally grown purchased option because dealing with the beetles every day is not in my cards.


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

Liver and Onions said:


> Do you sell asparagus from your house ? South facing slope....explains why it's ready for picking. I do not have garden asparagus anymore so I rely on finding wild asparagus.
> 
> L & O


Sorry, I was not following this thread, no I do not sell it. Me and a buddy just picked a overflowing five gallon bucket. He just shook his head, we picked just two days ago after fishing Wednesday. I just get a hold of people I know and have them come and pick a load. My buddy and I am working out a deal with him using the air freeze bags on fresh non refrigerated Asparagus. He then throws it in a frost free freezer for a day and moves them to a conventional freezer, he did this last year and it worked great. It will be nice to have it fresh all summer long, I will have to report back. I was telling him the Deer are probably getting mad because they come to eat it and there is only every other night to munch on it. Hey Frank i.e. Wildthing, did you get those seeds growing last year? Take'm, use that Sevin, I will be direct spraying only the Beatles as soon as I see them being careful not to hit those 1/4" Wasps.


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

A update just for the record if somebody looks this thread up. The Moth Balls worked great for keeping the deer away from the Asparagus. I just bought one bag and laid them outside the rows spaced about six feet apart. Maybe a few has been eaten since placing them. I will see how they make out now that I have quit picking, last year they were deforming (eating) the plants a couple feet off the ground. I have used Moth Balls before to change the movement of Deer when I did not want them to use a certain path.


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## Take'm (Dec 6, 2011)

Chessieman said:


> A update just for the record if somebody looks this thread up. The Moth Balls worked great for keeping the deer away from the Asparagus. I just bought one bag and laid them outside the rows spaced about six feet apart. Maybe a few has been eaten since placing them. I will see how they make out now that I have quit picking, last year they were deforming (eating) the plants a couple feet off the ground. I have used Moth Balls before to change the movement of Deer when I did not want them to use a certain path.


I don't have too much of a problem with deer but I seem to have the beetles under control now. The next challenge will be preventing them throughout the fern growth season so next spring they aren't there in such high numbers. I think for that I'll have to try the neem oil that was previously suggested. Time will tell.


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

With me not picking now, I will walk the rows every three days with the hand sprayer in hand mixed with Sevin. I will spray from a distance before they fly any that I see. I just will be looking close to make sure I do not hit my buddies the Wasps!


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## Take'm (Dec 6, 2011)

Chessieman said:


> With me not picking now, I will walk the rows every three days with the hand sprayer in hand mixed with Sevin. I will spray from a distance before they fly any that I see. I just will be looking close to make sure I do not hit my buddies the Wasps!


Thanks, that seems manageable!


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## jiggin is livin (Jan 7, 2011)

Chessieman said:


> With me not picking now, I will walk the rows every three days with the hand sprayer in hand mixed with Sevin. I will spray from a distance before they fly any that I see. I just will be looking close to make sure I do not hit my buddies the Wasps!


Damn, we need an asparagus thread! I just planted 10 crowns this year. They are starting to pop now, what do I need to know going forward? Any fertilyzer or anything they love? I wouldn't mind getting this to spread as far as possible, I gave it plenty of room and may add another row yet. We love the stuff. Considering we don't plan on ever moving again, I am willing to put in the time and effort now.


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

No, you let it grow during the summer and fertilize it during the late fall. Cut it down in the winter or before growth. I use to brush hog mine after it turned yellow in November just so I can fertilize it easier. No more, I want to squeeze all the plant growth down to the root ball. How you encourage more stems coming up in the spring is by picking them at below ground level. Every time you cut one another nip forms at the ball which will gradually shoot up more stalks. I have hundreds of single plants that throw up a dozen stems twice a week. I will try to remember to take a picture or the Plow I made for planting Asparagus. I threw seeds on the surface after the last frost on the places on the lines that were bare, these are now 4" tall and soon to be shaded by the weeds or neighboring plants. There is now only about five hundred or a thousand of these small plants now. I think I mentioned this before about a observation last winter. 80% of the plants next to the bare areas produced heavy seeds to naturally fill in the gaps. My Moth Balls must have washed away, I had the deer come in and eat a few dozen tops deforming the plant but I will leave them as is. I never had to spot spray for Beatles this year, those Moth Balls work! If you have a small patch you can put compost on it now to help your ground.


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## jiggin is livin (Jan 7, 2011)

Chessieman said:


> No, you let it grow during the summer and fertilize it during the late fall. Cut it down in the winter or before growth. I use to brush hog mine after it turned yellow in November just so I can fertilize it easier. No more, I want to squeeze all the plant growth down to the root ball. How you encourage more stems coming up in the spring is by picking them at below ground level. Every time you cut one another nip forms at the ball which will gradually shoot up more stalks. I have hundreds of single plants that throw up a dozen stems twice a week. I will try to remember to take a picture or the Plow I made for planting Asparagus. I threw seeds on the surface after the last frost on the places on the lines that were bare, these are now 4" tall and soon to be shaded by the weeds or neighboring plants. There is now only about five hundred or a thousand of these small plants now. I think I mentioned this before about a observation last winter. 80% of the plants next to the bare areas produced heavy seeds to naturally fill in the gaps. My Moth Balls must have washed away, I had the deer come in and eat a few dozen tops deforming the plant but I will leave them as is. I never had to spot spray for Beatles this year, those Moth Balls work! If you have a small patch you can put compost on it now to help your ground.


I have always heard don't pick the first year to let it grow, and I was thinking of not picking next year either. From what you are telling me, or at least the way I understand it, I SHOULD pick next year?


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## Chessieman (Dec 8, 2009)

I would for two times as long as you have rain coming. They recommend you bury them in a trench filling in for two years. If you do not pick then you loose that plant most likely you are SOOL. I will cut this years one year old's next year when everything is cut to get the Grass down. My pencil thick plants have at least 4 to 6 stems coming up in the third season. This is a seed source I bought from before;
Mary Washington Asparagus 

I see they doubled their price (like all the greedy people) but there are other ones, the generic modified for rust is good to have. You would think being a Michigan company they would have a will call for pick up but are to young to be smart. I think one pound is around 9000 seeds. All seeds must be cold stratified for 90 days, mine have been in the freezer for three years. Seeds can be collected from existing patches and you can get more than you need in a half of hour.
I may have shown this before of one years growth from seed, the depth that the ball forms is pretty incredible for a plant.


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## jiggin is livin (Jan 7, 2011)

Chessieman said:


> I would for two times as long as you have rain coming. They recommend you bury them in a trench filling in for two years. If you do not pick then you loose that plant most likely you are SOOL. I will cut this years one year old's next year when everything is cut to get the Grass down. My pencil thick plants have at least 4 to 6 stems coming up in the third season. This is a seed source I bought from before;
> Mary Washington Asparagus
> 
> I see they doubled their price (like all the greedy people) but there are other ones, the generic modified for rust is good to have. You would think being a Michigan company they would have a will call for pick up but are to young to be smart. I think one pound is around 9000 seeds. All seeds must be cold stratified for 90 days, mine have been in the freezer for three years. Seeds can be collected from existing patches and you can get more than you need in a half of hour.
> ...


What you have in the bag is pretty much what I have standing from each of my crowns right now.


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