{"id":211,"date":"2015-12-16T06:03:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T13:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=211"},"modified":"2018-03-08T19:21:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T19:21:50","slug":"rhubarb-growing-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/vegetables-herbs\/rhubarb-growing-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Growing Rhubarb"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to help your\u00c2\u00a0 Rhubarb water it even when it is raining!<br \/>\n<a title=\"Rhubarb by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4541595748\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4051\/4541595748_5c0875cc76.jpg\" alt=\"Rhubarb\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rhubarb Summary Top Tips <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Encourage strong leaf growth to encourage heavy crops with nitrogen compost and manure. Lime in winter.<\/li>\n<li>Stop picking stems by the end of July to allow roots to boost strength for next season.<\/li>\n<li>Plant 3 feet apart in friable but well trodden soil.<\/li>\n<li>Give a thick mulch around clumps to preserve moisture.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Rhubarb Calendar<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plant out new roots with good eyes\/buds in November or December.<\/li>\n<li>Divide roots in October-December a large 3 year old root may produce 6 plants\/offsets.<\/li>\n<li>Allow all leaves to die down in autumn before clearing away.<\/li>\n<li>Grow from fresh seed sown under cover in September or direct in March<\/li>\n<li>Pick early, second early or Late maturing varieties from March to August.<\/li>\n<li>Grow your own Rhubarb as it is easy to cultivate and gives a large crop of tender pink stalks.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid picking stalks in the first year &#8211; let the crowns develop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Varieties to choose<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Victoria, with thin stalks of rosy red that turn pink and green towards the tip. It is a late season cropper.<\/li>\n<li>Timperley Early AGM is the earliest to be harvested with long stems and a good flavour.<\/li>\n<li>Raspberry Red is a mid-late season variety of deep red stalks.<\/li>\n<li>Stocksbridge Arrow, is an old favourite in the West Riding of Yorkshire the home of there rhubarb triangle.<\/li>\n<li>Champagne is also one of the best varieties but there are lots to choose from at your garden centre or cadge a crown from neighbours.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Grow Rhubarb without fuss<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>One or two plants will produce &#8216;fruit&#8217; for many pies and crumbles about 5 lbs per plant- water the plants in dry conditions and pick after the first full season has been allowed to put energy into the root system.<\/li>\n<li>Every 5 years or when the plant becomes unproductive lift and split the root with a budded crown on each piece and replant<\/li>\n<li>Rhubarb likes slightly acid soil but tolerates most soil with good drainage and a high humus content<\/li>\n<li>Do not let the plants flower or energy will not go into stalk production. Cut flowers off as soon as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Rhubarb is tough and likes a frost to encourage growth<\/li>\n<li>Thin tender pink stalks can be forced early by placing a pot or barrel over the plant<\/li>\n<li>Do not eat the leaves they contain Oxalic acid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Organic Rhubarb<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>However the leaves can be composted as the acid breaks down<\/li>\n<li>Grow rhubarb organically as chemicals may react to the leaves.<\/li>\n<li>There aren&#8217;t many predators until the slugs come as the leaves decompose<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/ruhbarb\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2102\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2102\" title=\"ruhbarb\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/ruhbarb.jpg\" alt=\"ruhbarb\" width=\"448\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/ruhbarb.jpg 448w, https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/ruhbarb-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The crown of the plant is the top of the root system where the stalks shoot from. Under the crown will be a thick root r rhizome with finer hairs to take up the nutrients from the soil. Because it produces a large crop it needs feeding with good compost or farmyard manure when planted and then as a mulch every spring and autumn.<\/p>\n<p>My last post alluded to the green shoots of economic recovery, well all I can now say is Rhubarb Rhubarb. This is a clump of my Rhubarb waiting to joins other stalks in a crumble or pie.<\/p>\n<h3>Growing Rhubarb to Eat<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The stalks are the only part to be eaten, the leaves are full of poisonous Oxalic acid.<\/li>\n<li>Rhubarb is a vegetable but despite or because of its tart flavour it is mainly eaten with sugar as a sweet.<\/li>\n<li>Rhubarb like a bit of winter frost to encourage growth.<\/li>\n<li>Forcing Rhubarb by covering to make dark warm conditions will produce early, thin, tender stalks. Only force the plant in alternate years to avoid weakening the crown.<\/li>\n<li>Cropping between April to June when little else is available this is an undemanding and easy to cultivate plant<\/li>\n<li>The flowers are borne on hollow stalks and a a greyish white. I pull them out to conserve the plants strength.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3310\"><br \/>\nRheums are not just Rhubarb<\/a> link<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=13968\">Planting and growing Rhubarb<\/a><br \/>\nBuy Rhubarb from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thompson-morgan.com\/plants1\/search.html?section=all&amp;search=rhubarb\">Thompson &amp; Morgan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Rhubarb variety to grow and how to do so successfully<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vegetables-herbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19151,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions\/19151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}