Info at the link for commercial growers which provides insights for home gardens ...

Here is a link that might be useful: check this

You may have noticed the point in the link that the plant residue remaining overwinter helps to trap snow and possibly protect crowns from freeze injury. I buy into that advice and never mow down residue until the following spring. With a deeper snow cover you may slightly delay shoots which I also prefer. I don't have any markets in mid-April so I prefer my crop as delayed as I can get it. At any rate do not mow off until plants are fully inactive or you may adversely affect plant health.

I cut down my ferns in the fall and use them as mulch.

Don't cut it down... no reason to. Clean it up in the Spring.

Don't cut it down... no reason to. Clean it up in the Spring.

Getting rid of potential overwintering sites of asparagus beetles is a good enough reason for me to cut the dead ferns down in the fall.

Rodney

I cut the ferns in fall and remove them. The worst pest of asparagus is the asparagus beetle and they hide in mulch.

I like to leave them standing until late winter/early spring to catch snow. Then I cut them down and burn them on the spot w/a propane torch. This eliminates weed seeds and pests and doesn't hurt the asparagus at all.

lacey, I find that interesting cause I asked a question about A beetles living in the leaves and was told it was a fluke! Then last year I pulled the leaves off the asparagus before they started shooting and shot the area with sevin. No problems with A beetles. I don't normally use sevin, but was really bummed the year before when all my gus was squirly and eaten by the beetles!
I think I'll distribute some of the leaves to other beds and just keep an inch or so on the gus beds. Nancy