Harvest pressure in green asparagus
M.I. González, A. del Pozo
ISHS Acta Horticulturae 776:75-80. 2008.
2008
บทคัดย่อ
When to initiate harvest and when to finish it is a frequent question between Chilean asparagus farmers. Considering this aspect two experiments where conducted to evaluate different moments for initiating harvest and different harvest periods with cv. UC 157. Experiment 1 had three treatments: T1 (0, 4 and 8 weeks of harvest in the first, second and third year after planting respectively); T2 (4, 8 and 10 weeks); T3 (6, 10 and 10 weeks). Experiment 2 had six treatments: T1 (0 and 4 weeks of harvest in the first and second year after planting respectively); T2 (0 and 8 weeks); T3 (4 and 8 weeks); T4 (4 and 10 weeks); T5 (6 and 8 weeks); T6 (6 and 10 weeks). In the two following seasons harvest duration was 10 weeks in both experiments. Experimental design was randomised blocks with 3 replications. After 5 years of evaluation in Experiment 1, it can be concluded that harvesting for 4 or 6 weeks the first year after planting increased cumulative yield. However, plants turned more susceptible to a Fusarium spp. attack. In Experiment 2, after four evaluation seasons we can confirm the higher cumulative yield obtained when harvest is practised the first year after planting. Also, the number of available buds per rhizome in all treatments was much higher than those required to have a good number of harvested spears, and stalks later in the season.