"People grow asparagus from crowns because it shortens the long wait times for harvesting. From seed, you'll need to wait three years before harvesting asparagus. Some people consider that a waste of time. The tradeoff is that you can keep harvesting every spring for up to 15 years or more. If you plant crowns, you get a one-year jump on things. However, those crowns may have soil-borne diseases you don't know about, so there is a risk involved. Seeds remove that problem."
"Another upside to seeds is you have more varieties of asparagus to choose from. Most crowns are from popular cultivars, so you'll only find a few varieties. With seeds you can grow heirloom varieties that can come in different colors and offer great variation in flavor, like Mary Washington asparagus. Seeds also tend to be cheaper because you do all the growing yourself, unlike crowns, which require a year of care before sale."
Asparagus is a perennial vegetable that, when grown from seed, requires about three years before the first harvest but can produce spears for 15 years or more. Most gardeners use one-year-old crowns to shorten the wait by one year, but crowns can carry soil-borne diseases that seeds avoid. Seeds offer a wider array of varieties, including heirlooms with varied colors and flavors, and are generally less expensive because growers start plants themselves. Start seeds indoors roughly three months before the last frost, provide well-drained, not strongly acidic soil—sandy soils are preferable—and fertilize before and after stalk growth.
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