Articles
STUDIES WITH THE ASPARAGUS ‘MOTHER FERN’ CULTURE IN A TEMPERATE CLIMATE
Article number
479_59
Pages
431 – 438
Language
Abstract
The potential of the mother fern system to extend the asparagus harvesting was evaluated over the entire growing season in New Zealand.
An eight-year-old planting, consisting of the cultivars, UC 157 and Rutgers Beacon was used.
Harvesting treatments comprised the normal spring harvest (September-December), and two mother fern treatments, run from October and December to the end of March, respectively.
For both cultivars, the mother fern treatments produced considerably lower total and marketable yields (t/ha), thinner and seedier spears than the normal spring harvest.
There were no treatments’ carry-over effects detected in the following season, in which the crop was harvested for one month using the normal spring harvest only.
UC 157 produced higher yield and better quality of spears than Rutgers Beacon in all the treatments.
Moisture stress and apical dominance may have been the causes of the low yield of the mother fern system.
An eight-year-old planting, consisting of the cultivars, UC 157 and Rutgers Beacon was used.
Harvesting treatments comprised the normal spring harvest (September-December), and two mother fern treatments, run from October and December to the end of March, respectively.
For both cultivars, the mother fern treatments produced considerably lower total and marketable yields (t/ha), thinner and seedier spears than the normal spring harvest.
There were no treatments’ carry-over effects detected in the following season, in which the crop was harvested for one month using the normal spring harvest only.
UC 157 produced higher yield and better quality of spears than Rutgers Beacon in all the treatments.
Moisture stress and apical dominance may have been the causes of the low yield of the mother fern system.
Publication
Authors
I.L. Lekholoane, M.A. Nichols, K.J. Fisher
Keywords
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