臺灣蘆筍生產之特色

Special Aspect of Asparagus Growing in Taiwan

蘆筍原為一溫帶蔬菜，在臺灣由於採用留母莖之新栽培法，取代了一般通用之不留莖採收法，而使臺灣成為世界上主要之蘆筍生產及外銷國家，並且也為農村帶來了大量的財富。臺灣雖位於亞熱帶及熱帶，其能有如此龐大之蘆筍生產事業，已足以打破農業上“作物生產區域限制”的信條。蘆筍留母莖栽培方法最早導源於竹筍之栽培法，由所留之母莖繼續不斷製造養分，供紿植株所需之營養，而使嫩莖能在溫暖地區週年生產。雖然留母莖方法生產嫩莖之時期不似溫帶之集中於春季，但延長之採收期卻有二倍於溫帶之產量。此亦為熱帶地區充分利用太陽能增加生產農作物之一良好實例。本文並提供若干試驗結果，以說明留母莖栽培成功之原因。

A new technique in asparagus growing has made Taiwan both a major producer and exporter of this product The fact that there exists such a vital asparagus industry in a tropical region is in conflict with the traditional agricultural belief in the regional limitation of crops and production. This once considered temperate-zone vegetable has brought an increased monetary return to the asparagus growers in tropical Taiwan. This was made possible chiefly by using the mother stalk method instead of employing conventional temperate-zone cultural practice. The idea of the mother stalk method was derived from the culture of the bamboo shoot. The mother stalks will supply nutrient to the plant continuously-- thus spears are produced all year-round in warm regions. There is either no or an extremely short rest period. Although the spring production of spears is not as concentrated as in temperate zones, the extended harvesting period will produce perhaps more than twice the yield of temperate zone production. This is also a good example of full utilization of the endless solar energy of tropical regions. Experimental results demonstrating the success of this method are given.