Rhubarb is Easy to Grow
For a first-time vegetable grower, there isn't an easier place to start than with rhubarb.
It flourishes without needing much attention and you end up with a tasty dessert fruit when little else is ready for harvest in the garden.
Rhubarb is a very hardy, frost-resistant vegetable - in fact, it usually needs frost in the winter to produce the best stalks.
To eat apples is human, to eat rhubarb is divine (sorry Alexander Pope) But rhubarb cooked with other fruits such as the ubiquitous apple or raspberries is quite a delicious treat - especially when coupled with custard or ice-cream.
Soil preparation All varieties develop a deep root system and grow best in a fertile, semi shaded, well drained soil.
Prepare your soil about 30 days before planting, adding as much organic matter as possible, while also removing any stones in the dirt.
How to plant 1.
Of course you can grow rhubarb from seed, but why bother when you can get one year old plants ('crowns') that develop much faster.
Planting from seed takes a year longer and there is no guarantee that they will be true to type.
2.
Planting is best done in late autumn to early winter.
Allow a lot of space as they can grow quite large.
Add your compost and make the planting hole twice the size of the plant itself.
3.
When flowers appear in the Spring, pick them off as they will set seeds which only weakens the plant.
Divide When Multiplying a.
No, this isn't a maths conundrum.
Rhubarb multiplies and you need to divide them every five years when they are in winter dormancy.
This keeps the plants healthy and productive.
If your space is limited or you have enough of it, chuck the ones you don't want or give them away to another gardener.
b.
You can split each plant into three or four separate crowns with a spade.
Each crown has to have an 'eye' or a large bud from which next year's shoots will appear.
c.
Make a hole slightly larger (recommend twice the size) than the plants you have divided and place the crown in the hole with its roots facing downwards.
Just cover the top of the crown with about an inch of soil - put a little stake or a stone so you know where it is! The new shoots should appear above the surface in late winter or early spring.
Be Forceful!: Forcing Fruiting This is a simple process.
It involves denying light to the rhubarb and ramping up the heat a bit to cause the rhubarb to ripen.
This gives you an early harvest of much sweeter stems.
Just cover the plant with an opaque material (pot, black plastic) as soon as it shows signs of growth.
The heating effects of the covering and the lack of light quickly causes the rhubarb to ripen and it will be ready for the table within about four weeks.
Harvesting Give them time before you take your first harvest - about a year will do.
Wait for the leaves to open fully before taking the stalks (May to August) 1.
Gently twisting the stems and pull from the base of the plant.
2.
Leaves shouldn't be eaten as they contain oxalic acid and are poisonous.
It flourishes without needing much attention and you end up with a tasty dessert fruit when little else is ready for harvest in the garden.
Rhubarb is a very hardy, frost-resistant vegetable - in fact, it usually needs frost in the winter to produce the best stalks.
To eat apples is human, to eat rhubarb is divine (sorry Alexander Pope) But rhubarb cooked with other fruits such as the ubiquitous apple or raspberries is quite a delicious treat - especially when coupled with custard or ice-cream.
Soil preparation All varieties develop a deep root system and grow best in a fertile, semi shaded, well drained soil.
Prepare your soil about 30 days before planting, adding as much organic matter as possible, while also removing any stones in the dirt.
How to plant 1.
Of course you can grow rhubarb from seed, but why bother when you can get one year old plants ('crowns') that develop much faster.
Planting from seed takes a year longer and there is no guarantee that they will be true to type.
2.
Planting is best done in late autumn to early winter.
Allow a lot of space as they can grow quite large.
Add your compost and make the planting hole twice the size of the plant itself.
3.
When flowers appear in the Spring, pick them off as they will set seeds which only weakens the plant.
Divide When Multiplying a.
No, this isn't a maths conundrum.
Rhubarb multiplies and you need to divide them every five years when they are in winter dormancy.
This keeps the plants healthy and productive.
If your space is limited or you have enough of it, chuck the ones you don't want or give them away to another gardener.
b.
You can split each plant into three or four separate crowns with a spade.
Each crown has to have an 'eye' or a large bud from which next year's shoots will appear.
c.
Make a hole slightly larger (recommend twice the size) than the plants you have divided and place the crown in the hole with its roots facing downwards.
Just cover the top of the crown with about an inch of soil - put a little stake or a stone so you know where it is! The new shoots should appear above the surface in late winter or early spring.
Be Forceful!: Forcing Fruiting This is a simple process.
It involves denying light to the rhubarb and ramping up the heat a bit to cause the rhubarb to ripen.
This gives you an early harvest of much sweeter stems.
Just cover the plant with an opaque material (pot, black plastic) as soon as it shows signs of growth.
The heating effects of the covering and the lack of light quickly causes the rhubarb to ripen and it will be ready for the table within about four weeks.
Harvesting Give them time before you take your first harvest - about a year will do.
Wait for the leaves to open fully before taking the stalks (May to August) 1.
Gently twisting the stems and pull from the base of the plant.
2.
Leaves shouldn't be eaten as they contain oxalic acid and are poisonous.
Source...