A HEALTHY RHUBARB plant will last up to 10 years, so it’s a valuable investment. It also has many uses: enjoy it in a dessert, dip it in sauces or have it on the side with a main course.
Looking to mix things up in your fridge’s vegetable box? Get planting.
Sowing
Rhubarb is typically the first new season crop of the year, providing bountiful food from March onwards.
It will grow in most soils, provided it is reasonably fertile. Choose a site that’s quite sunny – it won’t do well in shade. Choose your site carefully, as the plants will be in situ for up to a decade if you’re lucky.
Dig in plenty of well rotted compost or manure in to the planting holes. The plants are incredibly deep-rooting. Three plants will be more than enough for most households.
Though it can be grown from seed, rhubarb is generally grown by buying young plants or encouraging a fellow GIYer to give you a crown (a piece of the plant’s root with at least one dormant bud on it) from their own healthy plants.
This is done by digging up the plant when it has died back in winter and using a sharp spade to slice off a 10cm piece of the root. Crowns are then planted in the soil about three feet apart, with the buds just above the ground to prevent rotting. The best time to plant them is in winter or very early spring.
Growing
Regular mulching with well-rotted manure or compost will help the plants greatly. A heavy dressing of compost each winter will do wonders.
If the vigour of the plant starts to decline (poor yields or very thin stalks), then it is a good idea to split the plant the following winter and create a new plant. Replacing your plants gradually over time will help to maintain a steady supply of good rhubarb.
Harvesting
Don’t harvest rhubarb in its first season – you want to concentrate on building vigour in the plant for the first year and then start harvesting in the second year. When harvesting rhubarb, take a hold of the stalk low down and pull it off, rather than cutting.
Recommended Varieties
Timperley Early, Champagne
Problems
Rhubarb is a generally healthy plant. Old plants can get viruses where the leaves become yellow and mottled. Honey fungus and crown rot can be problematic. If this becomes a challenge, dig up the plants and start on a fresh site.
GIY tips
1. “Forcing” rhubarb is where we cover the plants in early spring to force them to produce a very early, blanched crop. It can be done by either (a) lifting the plant in winter and growing it in tub in a dark garage or basement or (b) in situ by covering the plant with a rhubarb pot (or similar) for about five weeks.
2. Apply a liquid feed if the plant is looking poorly in spring.
Michael Kelly is a freelance journalist, author and founder of GIY.
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