ASPARAGUS PHYSIOLOGY

Dr Mike Nichols
Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University,
Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Plant physiology is the science of how plants grow. In other words it is understanding
what makes plants tick.

In order to achieve a high yield of high quality asparagus it is NOT essential to know
how plants grow, but it is valuable to have a sound understanding of those factors
which influence crop productivity, and to know what happens when certain agronomic
operations are performed, so that sound management decisions can be made.

In simple terms growing asparagus is rather like investing money in the bank. In the
initial stages the intention is to build up capital as rapidly as possible, and once this
is achieved, then the objective is to harvest the interest every year without reducing
the capital.
In order to achieve this for asparagus it is desirable to understand how the plant
grows.

We know less about asparagus physiology than most other crops, primarily because it
does not have the economic clout of wheat or maize or rice, and secondly because
much of the plant is below the ground and therefore not easily visible.

Basic structure of an asparagus plant

Let us start by examining a mature asparagus plant in the summer.
It consist of the following components:
1) a rhizome like structure from which the spears, shoots and roots develop.
2) Swollen storage rootswith fine feeding roots attached.
3) Bud clusters
4) Shoots
5) Fern (which may carry berries).

Crown is the term which refers to the plant structure comprising the rhizome, bud
clusters and the roots.

The swollen storage roots are very important, as these provide the reserves necessary
to produce both the next years crop of spears, and also the initial fern growth once
harvesting is completed.
The fine roots are required to absorb water and nutrients
The rhizome is a complex organ, on which a number of distinct, and also partially
connected bud clusters are formed.
Over time each bud cluster tends to act like an independent plant.
The spears are the economic part of the plant, which if not harvested at the
appropriate time develop into the fern. Each spear grows from a single bud on a bud
cluster.

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The fern is critical for the future of the plant as this is the photosynthetic engine,
which, during the summer and early autumn produces carbohydrate, which is then
stored in the swollen roots for crop and fern production the following year.
Because asparagus is dioecious each plant has either male or female flowers. Berries
are (of course) only found on the female plants.

Fig 1: Diagrammatic representation of an asparagus plant.

The growth of the seedling

Most asparagus plants start as a seed, which when it germinates produces a single
shoot (like a baby pine tree), and a single root.

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A small rhizome develops at the junction of the initial root and shoot, and on this
rhizome develops the first bud cluster.
Once the first shoot has completed its growth then the 1 st bud on the cluster grows to
produce the second shoot, and at the same time two swollen storage roots develop.
When (and only when) this shoot has fully expanded into fern the next bud will start
to grow. As the plant grows, further buds develop systematically, in a slightly zig-zag
line along the rhizome.

Occasionally lateral buds develop to produce lateral bud clusters, and thus although
the crown develops initially in a single direction, over time it becomes extremely
dispersed, and unstructured.

Life history of the asparagus plant.

It is possible to divide the plants annual cycle into four distinct phases, namely:

Spear growth Spring

Fern stage Summer
Fern dormancy Autumn
Dormancy Winter.

These stages vary in length, depending on the climate, so that at high latitudes (eg
Norway) the dormancy period will be extended, while in the tropics (eg Peru or the
Philippines) there will be no dormant period, and the plants will grow year round.

In fact the fern growth stage can be broken up into two important and distinct stages,
namely:
a) the establishment of the fern canopy (a major drain on the stored food
reserves in the roots)
b) the accumulation of carbohydrates in the roots, once the fern canopy has
been established.

Of course once the canopy is established this does not result in the cessation of new
fern, as this is an on-going process, which stops only with the arrival of cooler
weather.

Dormancy
Our knowledge on dormancy is very limited. Professor Krug from Hanover has
worked in this area in recent years, but there are still a considerable number of
uncertainties which still required to be understood.
We know that as the temperature falls, that spear production ceases, in fact in autumn
crops the production of spears stops at temperatures similar to those which occur
when the plant is at the peak of spear production in the spring.
This suggests that there is a requirement for the plant to go through dormant phase if
it is to produce spears at temperatures below about 15C.
Clearly this does not occur in the tropics, where temperatures never get that low.
We also suspect that asparagus behaves similar to fruit tress in its responses to
dormancy . This is probably why asparagus cultivars do not all appear at the same
time in the spring, i.e. some require more chilling to break dormancy than others.

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Our own work at Massey has suggested that day length may also play at part in
making plants dormancy in the autumn.
Work by Karno has shown that with a reducing day length spear production ceases,
and because of this, more carbohydrate is stored in the root system.

Sex
There is little doubt that all things being equal, male plants are more productive and
have greater longevity than female plants. The reason is not difficult to understand,
because something like 25% of the carbohydrate produced by the plant goes towards
the production of the berries. This is carbohydrate which is therefore not available for
storage in the root system for next years crop.
Please note, however, that this does not means that any all-male cultivar will be
superior, all that it means is that male plants of similar genetic background are
superior to female plants from the same background.
Clearly with all other things being equal there is a major advantage in using all-male
cultivars, not only because of the higher potential yield, but also because of the
advantage of having no volunteer seedlings.

Carbohydrate balance
If we now examine the carbohydrate balance in the plant over a full season of growth
we can get a better impression of what is in fact happening to the plant.

1. Winter
very small losses of carbohydrates due to respiration
Spring
carbohydrate being used for spear production
2. Summer
fern canopy establishmentmajor losses in carbohydrate
3. Summer
carbohydrate stored in roots from fern
4. Autumn
Reserves transferred from shoots to roots.

Clearly how we manage the crop can have a huge influence on the carbohydrate
balance.

For example extending the harvest season may have very little influence on the plants
carbohydrate reserves at the end of the harvest period, but by reducing the length of
the storage period in the summer, may greatly reduce the overall level of
carbohydrates in the plant

Similarly the loss of fern in the carbohydrate period due to disease or pest (or even
wind mage) will not only result in a loss of storage carbohydrates due to the
production of new fern, but will also mean that many of the larger buds destined to
produce next years crop have been used.

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Fig 2 : Example of carbohydrate balance in a typical plant.

During the dormant period (A-B) carbohydrate losses due to respiration are very low
(due to the low temperature). As soil temperatures rise in the spring the storage
reserves are mobilized to produce spears (B-C), however the major loss of storage
reserves occurs during the establishment of the canopy following close upthe end
of the harvest period. The production of the fern in the initial stages is totally
dependant on the stored carbohydrates in the roots, and it is not until the shoots have
actually ferned out that carbohydrate is available for the further production of new
fern and for the production and filling of the new storage roots and the refilling of the
older storage roots.

The effect of extending the harvest season (Fig 3) can be extremely traumatic on the
future long term longevity of the crop, as can the need to replace fern which has been
damaged due to weather, diseases or pests. (Fig 4)

Fig 3: Effect of extended harvest on carbohydrate balance

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Fig 4: Effect of fern damage at F on carbohydrate balance

The storage carbohydrates.

The basic reserve stored in the root system of the plant are fructans. These are
polymers of fructosea sugar. However because the only sugar that is easily
transported around the plant is sucrose, it is sucrose which is translocated from the
leaves to the roots, and then modified into fructans within the storage roots. The
polymerisation of the fructans within the root system appears to vary with the age of
the roots, but polymers in excess of n = 10 (10 fructose molecules joined together) are
not unusual.

When the spears start to grow in the spring the fructans are hydrolysed back into
lower polymer fructans , and finally transformed into into sucrose, which is the
building block for the carbohydrates structures within the spear.
There is a suspicion that the breaking of dormancy is partially controlled by the
changing of the higher polymer fructans to lower order fructans.

The growth of spears.

Asparagus spears grow in an exponential manner. This means that the taller they are
(above the ground) the faster they grow at least up to 30 or 40 cm in height.
Fig 5 demonstrates that at 10C a spear will take 9 days to grow from 1 cm -20 cm
tall, but at 25 C this will take only 5 days.

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Fig 5: Effect of temperature on the growth of asparagus spears.

Thus the growth of asparagus spears is very temperature sensitive, so that the spear
growth rate increases until about 35C.
This means that yield increases with increasing spring temperature. The potential
downside is that the higher the temperature the greater the potential for open spears
a major factor with green asparagus production in the tropics.
It also poses some problems if the market requires long spears, because it may be
quite satisfactory to harvest daily when harvesting an 18 cm long spear, because an
un-harvested 17 cm spear will not grow excessively tall by the following day, but if
the preferred harvest height is 24 cm, then a 23 cm long spear may be nearly 30 cm
long the following day!!
This means that to reduce open headed spears it may be necessary to harvest twice a
day in warm (tropical) conditions.

Apical dominance
Each bud cluster behaves virtually as an independent plant, and this means that until
the first spear on the cluster is harvested, that the second bud will not begin to grow.
Therefore the faster each spears grows the sooner it reaches harvest height, and the
sooner the next bud on the cluster can develop. Hence temperature is a major factor
in determining yield.

This means that in cool conditions spears not only take a long time to grow to the
harvest height, but that because of apical dominance the period between the
appearance of each new spear will be longer. Thus yield per week will be high in
warm conditions, and low in cool conditions. In temperate climates, harvesting is of
a finite time because of the need to have an adequate carbohydrate replenishing
period, and thus a cool spring will result in low yields and a warm spring in high
yields. This may be of less importance in Peru, as I understand fern grows all the
year round.

Asparagus production in the tropics.

The physiology of asparagus production in the tropics is dependant on precisely the
same factors as production in a temperate climate.
In Peru the crop is grown in an arid, but warm environment, and a technology has
been developed in which dormancy is induced by stopping irrigation. This is called

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drought dormancy, and initially ensures the cessation of new spears and fern (which is
a very carbohydrate expensive operation), followed by the drying out of the existing
fern , so that the plant appears to have gone dormant as in a temperate climate.
In fact the mechanism would appear to be totally different, and drought induced
dormancy would appear to be much harsher than normal dormancy.
Nevertheless it is effective, and the storage roots become well filled with fructans.
The fern can then be cut down, and when spears are required for harvest all that is
required is the addition of irrigation water. Of course there are some disadvantages
for example high temperatures during any rest period will deplete the storage roots,
and somewhat higher temperatures may be required for spear production, than from a
normal dormancybut this is all surmise, because little or no research has been
carried out in this area.
There still remains to be determined the best system to induce a drought dormancy,
and how to minimize carbohydrate losses during the dormant period.

Asparagus in the humid tropics is a totally different plant. The mother fern system
(developed in Taiwan) appears to be the only option, but to take the Taiwanese
system and use it without modification is not necessarily desirable.
It must be remembered that Taiwan is in the humid sub tropics, not the humid tropics.
Thus to provide the plants with rest periods which equate with the low temperature
seasons in Taiwan may be somewhat wasteful of resources.
The critical factor is to establish a sound capital based plant, and then to ensure that
the fern retains its vigour (and freedom from diseases) as long as possible. Over time
the canopy should be thinned to 3 or 4 shoots, (as the fern ages) and as further fern
ages, so it should be replaced with a new spear. All the other spears should be
harvested for sale.
Eventually it may be necessary to allow the plant to replenish some of its capital,
but to date I am unaware of any critical study to evaluate how frequently this should
beif ever, provided that the fern is kept free from diseases.

Temperature and productivity.

Our knowledge of the effect of temperature on the fern growth (carbohydrate
accumulation phase) of asparagus is limited to using small seedlings.
Work by Yen has shown that the maximum rate of plant growth is achieved at a
temperature of 27C. However there is a large difference in the root/shoot ratio with
temperaturewith shoots growing much faster than roots with increased temperature.
So much so that the optimum temperature for root growth is actually 22C.

Physiological studies in New Zealand

I would like to say a few words about some of the work currently being undertaken in
New Zealand.

Physiology is one of our major themes, and apart from work being carried out by
Professor Dan Drost from Utah State University I suspect we are the only country
with interest in this field of endeavour. Our strategy is that unless we can understands
what drives the plant, we are not in a very good position to drive it in the direction we
wish.
Dr Drost has recently been based in New Zealand working with Dr Derrick Wilson at
Lincoln, in a project aimed at establishing simple criteria for determining how long

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to harvest in any one seasonbased on an evaluation of storage root samples taken at
intervals from the crop during the previous year.
The long term intention is that this should be a grower led project, with the data being
held by Dr Wilsons group at NZ Crop & Food at Lincoln.
Currently this is a solely New Zealand project but if it is found to operate successfully
it is planned to offer the service internationally. With e-mail and internet there seems
little point in every country developing a similar service.

At Massey University our interest are also physiological, but we are concentrating
primarily on the bud clusters.
In order to do this we have developed an aeroponic system for growing asparagus
plants.
We started initially by growing the plants with the roots in a continuous mist of
nutrient solution. The results can best be described as a massive proliferation of bud
clusters. We re now looking at the possibility of stressing the plants in order to
produce a single bud cluster, which will then enable us to gain a greater understanding
of the way in which bud clusters develop.
As an extension of this work we have a very practical project to produce year round
white (or green) asparagus using greenhouses and insulated buildings.
This work will further advance our understanding of how crowns and bud clusters
grow.