asparagus' is not going dormant I was told to cut it back to the ground to help it along does anyone know the best way to get it to go dormant???? I know it is going to be hard to grow here in Pensacola FL but I have almost 30 plants and they seem to be doing very well but this is my first time growing this please any advise would be great I was also told it would not last near as long in FL but a few good years would be great this is its first year. Thank you & HAVE A BLESSED DAY

Don't know about Florida, but when I lived in Buffalo, N.Y. my neighbor had a wonderful patch. He would burn it off in the fall. Tried to grow it here, but never did get enough to cook which was my own fault...as soon as I spotted new stalks I'd break them off and pop them in my mouth...yummm

Damiam, I am in NE Mississippi and grow asparagus. When we begin to have temps in the 40's, the asparagus will begin to yellow and with colder weather, all the "heads" will turn brown. That will happen this week, since we are supposed to get down to the mid-upper 20's for two mornings. I trim those now dormant stalks back to the ground, and the plants come back in the spring. I do mulch my dormant plants with chopped oak leaves, perhaps 4-6" of mulch.

My plants started out as three plants, in 6" pots, and they have just finished their second year. There were perhaps 50 spears and the plants were 6' tall and almost as wide. I will begin to "harvest" the spears next spring/summer and will have enough for the entire summer. I did not cut a single spear the first two years.
'Mary Washington' asparagus, June 2013.

Damian, Your asparagus should die back after we get a good frost. Then you can cut off the dead ferns and mulch it if you like. It will resprout in the spring. We have been growing it 3 or 4 years and that is what we do.

Hi Pam, you must be just south of me somewhere. Are you sure you're not in 8b? Playing it conservative? I sure have been lucky with z9 plants... the past 4-5 years... The garden center I can't stay away from in Dothan sure has plenty of them to tempt. Where do you shop?

I'd like to get an asparagus patch going too! When do they sell the starts around here?

Hi Purplinop, I am In Molino Fl. You are right about the 8b. I used this map and it is hard for me to see the difference in the colors. They should make the colors less alike. LOL http://planthardiness.ars.usda... Thanks for pointing that out. I need to change it in my profile. We might end up being zone 9 one day. The winters are sure warm lately it seems, and this one is predicted to be warm and dry too.

If memory serves correctly, and it often doesn't, I bought the asparagus at Hall's Hardware in Ensley which is towards Pensacola. I'm sure you can get them on-line too.

I shop anywhere and everywhere for plants. I even keep some bags and a little shovel in my car for road side finds. I also like to check out the clearance racks at Lowe's and Home Depot. Sometimes they have some good plants for real cheap.

Edite to include Molino location link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...

Yep, cold is what asparagus needs to go dormant and stay that way. You might want to put ice on top of the soil or something, just to cool off the soil around the plants and try to keep it cold. Then make some shade for the area, too, so the sun doesn't warm the soil up again if we have a run of sunny weather. Set up some shade cloth, or park some big potted plants on the south side of the asparagus bed?

I'd think the north side of a building would be a good place to try to grow asparagus in Florida. At the very least the shade from the building would keep the soil cooler through the winter months. I plant my daylilies on the north side of the house for the same reason - to give them as much winter chill as possible.