The asparagus season is already underway in Spain. This vegetable is highly appreciated in the European gastronomy, and Spanish asparagus are currently heading for the European markets, kicking off the European season. The life of an asparagus begins several years earlier in specialized nurseries such as Segovia's Agrícola Veganiña, based in Navalmanzano, where asparagus roots and seedlings are grown for all the country's producing areas.
"Asparagus is a multi-year crop that can remain productive for close to a decade, but only begins to produce between the second and third year after the planting. Therefore, asparagus producers must fully and completely trust the nursery providing them the means for a project that will last for 10 years," says José Fernando Torrego, of Agrícola Veganiña.
"In our asparagus nursery we cultivate 26-28 hectares, where we annually produce between 7.5 and 8 million roots of white and green asparagus from a wide range of hybrid and hybrid-male varieties from leading seed companies. These are distributed throughout Spain and exported mainly to France and Portugal."
"In Spain, green asparagus is grown throughout Andalusia. It has settled strongly in the area of Antequera, Cordoba, Granada, Jaen or Seville. Some is also starting to be grown in Murcia," says José Fernando. "As for white asparagus, it continues to be grown in the traditional areas, and we see that in Extremadura there is a certain stabilization in its cultivation, and even some reduction, while growing interest has been observed in recent years in the Ebro regions (La Rioja and Navarra), as well as in Tudela de Duero (Valladolid) and Fuentesaúco (Zamora)."
"In Portugal, there is a remarkable commitment to green asparagus, mainly organic. Veganiña supplies certified roots suitable for cultivation. Thanks to the disinfection of the soils in which we grow the roots, and to their characteristics (they are sandy soils with very good drainage), we guarantee that the plant material we supply is totally aseptic and free of fungi and diseases," he says.
February and March are the months when asparagus roots are planted. Growers try to finish planting prior to the start of the harvesting to prevent the overlap between these tasks.
"As for varieties, we try to advise growers based on our experience and depending on the production area. I should point out that all the seed houses have done a very good job with the crop, and have developed very interesting varieties. However, we see that in Spain just over 50% of what is currently being planted is the Grande F1 variety from Walker Brothers, and the rest is very spread out. Some varieties that deserve attention are those from LIMGROUP (Vegalim, Sunlim and Starlim) and BEJO (Magnus) -all of them male hybrids that do not produce seeds-, as well as the Apollo and Early California, and the varieties from Planasa," says José Fernando Torrego.
For more information:
José Fernando Torrego
Agrícola Veganiña
Ctra. de Fuentepelayo Km 0,8
40280 Navalmanzano, Segovia, Spain
Tel.: +34 921 122 155
[email protected]
https://agrivega.es
