Rhubarb Questions

[Hannah]

I have always wanted rhubarb since I love the flavor so much and now that I have successful grown a nice plant from seed last year, I find I am not sure how to care for it.  I have heard I need to wait till it is 2 years old before harvesting any.  Is that true?  Do I need to remove the flower that is forming in the middle right now?  How do I harvest if I can this year?  When do I split the plant up into 2?  Do I remove leaves to promote growth?  Any experience you might have would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[Colin Keizer]

Hi Hannah.

Congratulations on your new biology projects!

Mom says that she and her Mom and her Aunt Irene never let their rhubarb plants flower. They cut off any new-forming flowers as close to the base as convenient.

When you harvest rhubarb, be careful to let plenty of leaves stay on the plant to shield it from the sun.

Toward autumn you will want to let more leaves stay on the plant so they grow back down to provide food for it in the winter.

Mom will be along on her email to provide more information to you later this afternoon, if the nap monster does not catch up with her first.

Colin

[Joelle Keizer]

Hi Hannah, Congratulations,
I look forward to hearing more about your rhubarb from seed. I have always started with a piece of root and a few leaves. My knowledge is just that experience and observing family gardens, which always had rhubarb. I will do some searching internet and my books for a better idea of how it grows and to affirm the family mythology.

You might want to give your rhubarb its two years to establish itself before harvest. Watch to see how the base grows and in 3 or 4 years you may see where you can separate it and cut the root to move it for additional plants. I usually find parts around the perimeter that are easier to remove. My two plants are about 4 foot diameter, 18 inches high with 12 to 15 inch leaves, 2 X 1 oval stems and quietly flourish beneath their large leaves. This year stems/stalks look thinner and leaves smaller. I know I need to divide the plant.

Yes, go to the base of the stalk and cut the flower so the plant will continue to produce through the summer.

Remove leaf and stalk like a piece of celery. When the leaf loses all the wrinkle and is smooth it is safe and ripe. Pull on the stalk whose base looks like a celery base when it parts with the plant. If it breaks, I remove the piece that is left. If the stalk does not want to release, I leave it to ripen more.

I understand the LEAVES ARE POISON and remove the stalk below the leaf and the heavy connecting veins. I use the stalk in sauce, pie and crisp. Wash and cut stalk into 1 inch pieces. I use, freeze or give it away. My mother’s early morning garden/orchard walks often resulted in rhubarb or apple sauce. I think they found rhubarb helped regularity.

Remove leaves and stalk in a thinning manner so you get a harvest and growth is encouraged, but the umbrella of leaf protection is maintained for the more fragile “buds” of folded new leaves that are opening and growing at the base. If you come up short for your recipe, add apples, strawberries or other.

Thirty years ago a nursery friend recommended an aged barnyard/chicken tea. A bag of same in water in a bucket kept her rhubarb watered and fed. I don’t recall, but suspect it was a weekly thing, with plenty of plain water in dry periods. I clean out the bottom layer of leaves as they die under the plant.

I sometimes leave slugs who live there.

Joelle

[Leann Solene]

I was really glad to see rhubarb sauce referred to above.  I always thought I was being a bit decadent, but that is how I like to eat it best.  Warm with a dollop of vanilla yogurt and a dash of cinnamon.

 

I have a ~10 year old plant that has been with me through a couple moves/divisions.  It never sent up those artichoke like flowers until summer 2011. There must have been close to a dozen.  They kept coming back!  I was wondering if it had something to do with the plant needing division?  I haven't whittled it for 6 seasons now and it's getting huge.  OR maybe it was just the cool summer we had?  I got about 4 + harvests off of it.  Does anyone know? Should I divide it just for the sake of making it smaller?