Atlas

Atlas is an F1 hybrid asparagus that traces to California Asparagus Seed and Transplants, the source listed for it in NC State's North American cultivar directory, and is now carried by Walker Plants/Walker Seed, which Purdue's Vegetable Crops Hotline names as its supplier. Its selling point is raw output: Walker Seed rates Atlas 20-50% higher yielding than UC 157 F1, the benchmark warm-climate hybrid. Unlike the all-male Jersey and Guelph hybrids that dominate northern plantings, Purdue lists Atlas as dioecious, so a bed carries both male and female plants (Territorial, which sells the crowns, describes its stock as predominantly male, so accounts differ). It is one of the few hybrids marketed for both green and blanched white production, with separate planting depths and densities for each. Seed is genetic-purity tested, certified by the California Crop Improvement Association, and produced free of Asparagus Virus II.