# Rhubarb question



## Kygardengal (Sep 7, 2004)

I have never grown rhubarb before. This past spring I bought 4 plants and tucked them in the corner of my flower beds. I have done nothing to them since. Some of the leaves are "ratty" looking. Question is: Is there anything special to do to them for the winter? How fast do they "mulitply"? I spaced 
them about 1ft apart. Do they require any special care?


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

Give them enough water so the roots take a good hold and wait for spring to harvest.
I'm zone 4 and mine is hardy and tough as nails---survives our winters just fine.

Enjoy!


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## Barb (May 14, 2002)

Tallpines is right - give them water and don't pick until spring. Rhubarb likes manure. If you have some well composted manure you might try top dressing it as you have already planted it. Someone can correct me but I think the rule of thumb is never to pick more than a third of the stalks at any one time, wait for it to produce more stalks before picking again. This is usually what I follow. After spring rhubarb gets ratty looking and will quit producing many more stalks until next spring. A foot apart is a little close but you can transplant easily when it get too crowded. Rhubarb gets big fast. When I moved (4 years ago)we brought some with us and planted it about two feet apart and I am already sorry and will move some this fall. I would pick very limited the first year fo picking. Oh, and your stalks should break off at ground level and not below ground. Be sure you aren't too deep.


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## Kygardengal (Sep 7, 2004)

Thanks, you guys have helped me out here....I keep them watered but here it has been real dry....before today....They are about 8 inches high as I am sure they are young. The tag said to not eat the stalks the first year....I am 
hoping for a small harvest next spring.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

You could probably hope for a medium harvest next year -- rhubarb takes off! FWIW, I mulch mine after side dressing with composted manure and watering deeply.

Something interesting I learned this year: If you're going to make rhubarb wine, you must use rhubarb picked before the end of May, or it will be all ropey and oogy. I don't know how it will be in your zone (are you actually in KY, or is that where you started?), but have friends from AL who never even heard of rhubarb because it just won't grow that far South. :shrug: 

Up here in the North, rhubarb keeps people from losing their minds at the end of Winter -- gives us hope for something green.  

Pony!


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## Kygardengal (Sep 7, 2004)

I am really in Ky actually just north of Nashville. I am zone 6 and I suspect it should do well. The only rhubarb I have had is the frozen from the grocery.
I am hoping for an impovement in flavor...When should I harvest it?


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## Barb (May 14, 2002)

Rhubarb is a spring crop like peas. You can pick as soon you have enough for what you want to do with it. Remember not to strip too many stalks at a time. I usually let it go when it gets hot and the plant isn't putting out many new stalks - about the time the peas are done. 

There are different varieties of Rhubarb. I have three. One is ?, one is strawberry rhubarb (I think) and the other one I found at the old homestead on my place that had about three inch leaves. I dug up what I could get of the root (it had gotten buried very deep and in hard soil), transplanted it and now it is very big. The stalks are almost flat. and it's almost completely green with little red. Does anyone know what kind this is? I'm not real fond of it but more sentimental because it comes from the pioneer days.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

I have found a use for rhubarb leaves (besides compost: we all know they're poisonous to eat because of the oxalic acid, right?)

If you're into pottery, you can roll out a a BIG rhubarb leaf (burdock works well, too) onto a thin slab of clay, then pull the leaf (or leave it -- it will burn off in the kiln, I suppose), and curl up the sides a bit. Makes a lovely serving platter.

Pony!


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## oberhaslikid (May 13, 2002)

Guys try this on your Rhubarb 
Rhubarb Booster 
In a Quart of warm water dissolve 1TBS. of Epsom salt and 1 cup of brewed tea or a tsp. of instant tea. pour into the center of the plant and watch out!
I do this twice a year and any bloom that comes up I pull the whole stalk the bloom is on and keep using all summer.The more I pull the more that it makes.


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## Kygardengal (Sep 7, 2004)

It will bloom?????? I didn't know that...... :shrug:


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## Nan (May 13, 2002)

It gets a funny hollow stemmed seed stalk that comes up in the middle. Kind of like when spinach bolts or onions go to seed..only the seeds look a bit different than that. I was told like they said above, to make sure and get rid of the seed stalk thing fast or the plant's energy will be put into that and not into the leaves and roots for the next year. It takes a LOT of water to keep the leaves from wilting in the heat of zone 6. I had mine in the Northern part of Oklahoma in zone 6B. I didn't have to mulch it or do anything to it except for fertilze it and water, water water! I LOVE rhubarb!


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## labrat (Jun 3, 2005)

Kygardengal, Here's a link I think will give the info you are looking for.

http://www.powen.freeserve.co.uk/veg/vegmenu.html#index

This is the main page. Just click on rhubarb and the link 

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/

and then a table of contents. I think what you are needing is 

6 - Growing Rhubarb

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/rhubarb-growing.html#TOC15. 

There is quite a bit of info.


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## Kygardengal (Sep 7, 2004)

WOW...lots of info....thanks so much to all of you...


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