EVALUATION OF TWENTY-EIGHT ASPARAGUS GENOTYPES AFTER THREE YEARS OF HARVEST AT VALDIVIA, CHILE.

Total accumulated yield, for the first three harvests, ranged from 5.7 to 16.9 tonnes/ha. Close to the top of the range were Junon, Cito, Aneto, Larac, Jersey Giant. Lowest yields were from Brock's Imperial, Argenteuil, and Del Monte 361. Annual yields and the distribution of spear sizes from the third harvest is presented. Junon appears to have a higher yield of the largest size, both in weight and as a percentage of its production. Lucullus 310, Cito, Sch.Heisterschusse, and Lucullus 234 produced the most spears.

In the third year of harvest, during a given period, the daily spear elongation averaged 5.58 cm at a mean daily temperature of 15.5°C. At the same period and through a regression between height of spears and a scale of head opening score, the height at which the different spears would start to open was calculated. According to this, Argenteuil and Aneto would open below 20 cm, and UC 157, Mary Washington and UC72 UC157 above 34 cm.

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