Seeds
germinated Oct/Nov 2002 and grown in Greenhouse
Dried off June 2002
Into field 17 – 19 September 2003
29 cultivars arranged in four blocks, 25 plants of each cultivar per block
giving a total of 100 plants per cultivar.
Couple of spears harvested per plant to stimulate bud formation
Short harvest taken 16/09/04 to 5/11/04
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2004 Data
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1: Jersey Gem |
2: Eros | 3: NJ1016 | 4: NJ977 | 5: Jersey Knight | 6: Grolim | 7: Aragon | 8: Gueph Millennium | 9: Backlim | 10: Thielim |
| 11: NJ956 | 12: Apollo | 13: NJ 1019 | 14: Marte | 15: Italo | 16: Aneto | 17: JWC1 | 18: Average | 19: UC157 | 20: Desto |
| 21: Jersey Supreme | 22: DA909 | 23: Larac | 24: Jersey King | 25: Jersey Giant | 26: Cito | 27: Dariana | 28: Gijnlim | 29: Pacific 2000 | 30: NJ953 |
Comparison of 29 cultivars for a short harvest in 2004
Note that only a very tentative comparison can be made between cultivars at this point. A much more robust assessment should be obtained from the 2005 season, and from the 2006 and 2007 seasons if the trial is continued.
‘NJ 953” gave particularly high yields of high quality spears, followed by ‘Pacific 2000’. Cultivars Jersey King, Jersey Giant, Cito, Dariana and Gjinlim also performed well. Interesting to note genotypes from five different countries are represented in the top seven cultivars.
At the 11th International Asparagus Symposium ‘NJ 953’ was found by several researchers to perform very well. ‘Guelph Millenium’ was also reported to perform well but was one of the poorer performers in this our trial at Massey University. It must be emphasized that firm conclusions cannot be reached on the basis of this first short harvest, which would tend to discriminate against late yielding cultivars for example. However the cumulative yield data shown in the next graph certainly suggests that the ranking may be similar next year.
Cumulative yield over time for the first harvest (2004). Cultivars are ranked
from the highest yielding (NJ 953) to the lowest (Jersey Gem).