The Green Gold Rush: How Kennewick’s Asparagus Boom Became a Local Gold Mine

Many of our growers who are fortunate enough to own an asparagus patch this year are just realizing that they have a gold mine if they but make the best use of it.

The prices this year have been more than pleasing to the asparagus growers and while this crop has rather been on the decline in the past few years, a renewed interest is being manifested and the grower who is taking this view will have reasons to be glad he did, as the fame of our asparagus is just getting out into the outside world and the trade is demanding it wherever they get a chance.

One of our successful growers in the valley said this week, “I put 25 loads of stable manure on my asparagus patch of 1 acre last winter and I am now taking off from 10 to 12 boxes every other day and with warmer weather I will be taking 15 to 18 boxes every other day.” Does this pay? Well, I guess it does. Many growers have been trying to produce a fancy asparagus off of common ground with very little if any fertilizer and their results from this kind of method have been anything but satisfactory.

No better combination can be worked out by those who have a few cows or other live stock than setting out a fine young patch of asparagus and fertilizing the ground well each year. Asparagus is a crop that not only requires but demands heavy fertilizer and you might as well not try to grow it at all if you do not intend to provide it with its demands.

In setting out a new bed of asparagus the first thing to be done is to get male plants and to be sure that you are setting out male plants as the male plants are the only ones that bear good grass. You must sow your seed and select only such plants as do not show seed. The female plant will run to seed and bear the red pods, but these you do not want. This lesson has been learned by most growers after several years of wondering why their patch was so spotted in its full bearing hills. I believe that $1000.00 per acre can be taken from an acre of asparagus in this valley a year if the patch is kept in the right condition is set all to male plants.

Its a permanent crop will live for years and years and requires very little work during the summer months other than applying of fertilizer. And it is a crop that will always find a ready market. Coming as it does in the early spring it brings good money and just at the time when a dollar looks as big as a cart wheel.

Under no circumstances plant the white varieties. They are very unpopular on our markets and are selling for from one third to a half less than our red grass is today on the same markets.

Year by year the Kennewick grass is being introduced into new markets where it soon cuts some ice and in a year or two more we could work into the eastern markets had we the supply to load and ship in car load lots. The markets can’t be overdone on Kennewick grass. We have answered this question many times and we can say it with all honesty as we are very much interested in the grass business, believing that it will be a big paying crop to the valley.

It is also one that can be handled profitably as regards the labor problem, as strawberry growers can raise asparagus and cut it until the berries get coming fast and then stop if they are too short of help. This is just one of the many crops that can and will be made profitable if the growers will buckle to it and produce the right kind of stuff and put up as fine as they have so far this year.

Growers should use great care in the packing of their asparagus to see that no stock goes in, that is unfit for markets. They are getting top prices and they must give the consumer value for his money if they would have the good demand continued. They must be very careful as to weight. Each box this year must hold not less than 12 lbs. net when the box reaches the market. That means that the boxes must weigh at least 12½ lbs. net here.

There is but one way to keep a standard up and that is to ship the best grade, every box full weight and the very best pack that you know how and if you do not know how you had better see your shippers before you start packing and get started right.

A good pack will always command a cash price f.o.b. Kennewick and the grower can make good money producing this crop. Why not make Kennewick noted not only for the quality of the asparagus she ships but also for the quantity as well?