Potatoes And Asparagus Are Not Ideal Garden Partners - Here's Why

While both asparagus and potatoes are two plants that you want to start fairly early in your spring garden, they should never be planted next to each other. If you choose to plant them together, the growth of both plants might be negatively impacted. A big reason never to grow these plants together in your garden is that both are considered heavy feeders. Potatoes need a good mix of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus to thrive and grow large tubers. Asparagus also uses a lot of energy and nutrients to provide large harvests. If you want to plant anything near these plants, consider plants that add nitrogen to your garden soil or other important nutrients. When planted next to each other, these two plants create too many issues for a gardener.

In loose, well-drained, nutrient-rich soil, you can start seed potatoes in February. Asparagus can also be planted around the same time, but avoid planting it alongside your potatoes. In fact, asparagus doesn't do well with most other plants due to its tendency to outcompete them. Asparagus plants also eventually grow tall ferns that could block sunlight from other plants, which means they are best planted away from other plants on the north side of a garden plot.

Another important distinction when growing potatoes and asparagus is that they grow on two completely different schedules. Newly sown seed potatoes can start producing after seven to eight weeks of growth. Compared to asparagus, which can take up to four years to produce harvestable stalks, potatoes are a quick garden option. Just as potatoes and carrots belong together in the kitchen but not the garden, keep your potatoes and asparagus separate until after harvest. It's especially important if you started growing them around the same time.

The methods used to grow and harvest potatoes also can disturb tender asparagus plants. As your potato plants begin to grow upwards, it's recommended that you create a low ridge of soil around the plants to eliminate the potential for sunburnt potatoes and weeds. This practice of cultivating a ridge of loose soil is called hilling. Because of the dense, horizontal root system that characterizes asparagus plants, hilling is likely to damage or displace them. Mature asparagus also grows quickly and is easily disrupted by gardening tools. Growing potatoes too closely to asparagus could leave you with crooked asparagus spears if you're not careful with your potato cultivation methods.