THE first crop of North Queensland asparagus has been planted on a farm near Charters Towers in a move that could open up a new produce line for Australian consumers.
Anthony Caleo, 32, planted the trial asparagus crop over two hectares on his watermelon and pumpkin farm at Sellheim in mid-November in a bid to diversify the business.
Mr Caleo, who received burns to over 50 per cent of his body after a farm accident in February 2014, said branching into another crop was borne out of necessity after cucumber green mottle mosaic virus was again detected on his property, Cottrell Farms, early last year.
The virus was first detected on his 161ha property in April 2015 and re-emerged in January 2017.
Mr Caleo said he leased a property about 45km away to continue his watermelon and pumpkin production, but was looking for an alternative use for Cottrell Farms with a crop resistant to the disease until the all clear was given.
He said it was his father Jon, who also runs a watermelon farm at Black River, who decided on asparagus.
“The reason why Dad went for asparagus is it’s not related to watermelon so won’t harbor the virus, and during winter when we would want to harvest for both the asparagus sake and our own business, there’s none or very little produced in Australia,” Mr Caleo said.
“It's another one of these health foods that seem to be getting more and more popular every day of the week as more people find the benefits of eating them, selling more of it.
“There was a bloke growing it in Katherine and we're similar latitude to Katherine so there really is no reason why it shouldn’t work.
“Basically it will just grow anywhere, I've got friends down in South Australia and it's a weed down there.”
Mr Caleo planted the crop in mid-November after his father produced the seedlings in his nursery.
He said conditions were not ideal at the time of planting, with some plants failing in the hot ground, but recent rain had been welcomed.
“It was bloody hot and the bare ground was bloody hot on them and we lost a few just to the heat.
“It's appreciating the rain, weeds have been an issue, we've had a few storms since we planted it but once it gets to about a year old there's some pre-emergent herbicides that we can use, it's just a bit fragile at this age to use much so doing it by hand at the moment.”
Mr Caleo said he would leave the crop for almost two years, before their first harvest in winter 2019.
“It takes one to two years after you transplant depending on how hard you are on it. We’ll probably leave it for two years the reason is developing a root stock so it will last longer.
“When we want to harvest it we'll run a mulcher over it to cut it off at ground level and then harvest the spears as come up out of the ground.”
Mr Caleo said he hoped to sell the asparagus to Woolworths to supply the local North Queensland market during the winter months when Australian asparagus was not readily available.
Despite the setbacks of 2017, Mr Caleo said between him and his father’s properties, they produced about 2500-3000 tonnes of watermelon, with the season due to wrap up this week.
- This story first appeared on the North Qld Register.