Last edited on 2 Nov 2026. View history
Sweet Purple Asparagus
A variety of asparagus
How to sow sweet purple asparagus: Transplant crowns outside, or start seeds indoors
Sun requirement for sweet purple asparagus: Plant in Full Sun
A highly productive purple asparagus with sweet, less fibrous spears that are larger in diameter and better shaped. Grow it like Mary Washington: slow germination, leave the ferns to feed the roots, light cutting in year two and full production by year three.
- 0
- plantings
- 0
- harvests
- 0
- seed packets
Sweet purple asparagus facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For sweet purple asparagus, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 6°C and a shortest growing cycle of 210 days at its best temperature, about 3465 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your sweet purple asparagus will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing sweet purple asparagus
- Dig a trench and fill it with compost 2 weeks before planting out
- Water regularly at planting out every week
- Mulch the bed 4 weeks after planting out
- Cut down the yellow ferns 9 months after planting out
- Pick the spears at first harvest every week
- Stop picking and let the ferns grow 8 weeks after first harvest
Video
What people are saying about sweet purple asparagus
Nobody has posted about sweet purple asparagus yet.
Sign in or sign up to post your tips and experiences growing sweet purple asparagus.
Who's planted sweet purple asparagus
Nobody has planted this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your sweet purple asparagus plantings.Sweet purple asparagus harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
Sign in or sign up to track your sweet purple asparagus harvests.Find sweet purple asparagus seeds
There are no seeds available to trade on Growstuff right now.
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Asparagus officinalis L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Liliopsida Liliidae Asparagales Asparagaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -1 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about sweet purple asparagus
Resources outside Growstuff.
