Ontario Asparagus
Demonstration Event

It took place in the evening and was held at Sandyshore Farms in Port Burwell. The owner of the farm is Ken Wall, one of the leading asparagus producers in North America. In attendance were a range of asparagus growers from across the province of Ontario as well as other industry specialists; these included Dr. David Wolyn, asparagus breeder at the University of Guelph.

Ken took us on a tour of the farm and we were able to witness a number of trials that are taking place. Of particular interest to most visitors were the asparagus hybrid trials. We were able to see commercial plantings of two new releases, namely Guelph Eclipse and Guelph Equinox. Both varieties are now demonstrating in a large scale the same benefits that were observed in early tests. Guelph Eclipse is a precocious type that provides very high yields in the early years after planting and these are well maintained subsequently. As far as Guelph Equinox is concerned, the plantations had an abundance of healthy fern and Ken himself stated that the variety could be a “game-changer” in terms of yield.

In addition to these areas, we also saw agronomic trials to assess the optimum planting density for the industry standard cultivar, Guelph Millennium. Plant spacings varied from 15cm to 21cm and up to 25cm. Previous tests in other locations have demonstrated improved performance by using more plants per hectare. For example, standard practice in Washington State for Guelph Millennium is for growers to direct sow 80-100.000 seeds per hectare.

It was clear that the asparagus varieties emanating from the University of Guelph are improving with each new release. This is only good news for growers of asparagus looking to both improve their yields and spear quality.

The evening was rounded off with an excellent barbecue and allowed visitors to discuss in more detail what they had seen on the farm tour. We look forward to catching up with friends from Ontario again soon at the ExpoSE event in Karlsruhe, Germany in November.