Determination of disaster status and organic transplant availability shall be determined by the certifying agency. Although there is some organically produced stock currently available, there are not enough of all varieties of all crops yet available to require perennial trees and vines be organically produced. The types of transplants described specifically below are plants propagated vegetatively, by means of division, specialized organs, such as bulbs or corms, layering, cuttings, and tissue culture to reproduce an individual plant without genetic change. In all situations where availability of organic planting stock is an issue, the NOSB urges organic producers to persistently request that organic stock and transplant growers research and develop organic propagation. One year of organic management is required prior to the harvest of spears from asparagus crowns that were not organically produced.
Direct field seeding of asparagus is practiced by few growers.
Most asparagus plants are started by planting one year old crowns. Typically, the crowns are grown in a nursery in early spring. The following spring, the plants are dug, separated, and replanted in permanent beds. Harvesting of asparagus spears usually begins the third spring from planting. Garlic seed is rarely produced.