Asparagus varieties

For several years now I've enjoyed a decent harvest of Connovers Colossal aparagus.

But I'll probably be giving up the allotment to my neighbour next season  as I'm going to concentrate veg growing efforts at home. So I'm looking for recommendations as to what variety I should plant in the new asparagus bed.

Connovers Colossal has done well for me but is there a 'if you had space for only one variety' that you would recommend? Of course I could always plant several crowns of different varieties but which ones?

Comments

[Patrick]

I think there's a bit of debate on how many varieties of asparagus really exist, because many of them are very similar but have different names. I think there are really only three types; 'normal', 'purple/purple top' (often used for growing blanched/white asparagus) and 'wild'.

I think Connovers Colossal is a purple type.

Beyond this there is Mary Washington which is 'normal', but has some disease resistance to asparagus rust. I don't even know if rust is in issue in the UK or elsewhere in Europe.

There are also some F1 hybrids that claim higher yields, but I don't know if I would believe those claims or if it would even be desirable to have higher yields.

Most people say wild asparagus tastes the best, but I don't know if it will grow in the UK. I tried to grow this from seeds Gintonio (Jardim com gatos) sent me, but they didn't germinate. I may try again next year. I have seen these seeds for sale at Seeds of Italy too. If you go for this variety, consider it an experiment.

I ended up growing Mary Washington, because I could easily order the seeds. Crowns available locally are expensive, of questionable quality and un-named varieties. I see in the UK a lot of named varieties are available as crowns.

Growing asparagus from seed has turned out to be a lot of extra work. The plants are very fragile, and there is an extra year wait before harvest.