History of white asparagus harvesting technology

White asparagus is the most important vegetable crop in Germany. Harvesting white asparagus is time-consuming and costly. Additionally, the shortage of labor causes problems and has led to an intensive search for alternatives. This article describes the development of harvesting methods in the last 50 years. The most important step was the use of opaque black/white films to cover the asparagus ridges to reduce the harvesting frequency. Based on this, various harvesting methods were developed. Starting with hand harvesting with basket, push carriages and single- to multi-row motorized harvesting aids followed. At the same time, non-selective and selective mechanical harvesters were developed. The advantages and disadvantages of the individual methods are described.