Can anyone tell me how, when, where to plant rhubarb and it's care?
rhubarb
Rhubarb can be planted or transplanted almost any time of the growing season. It prefers full sun and it is a heavy feeder that will benefit from a side dressing of compost or composted manure annually. After planting, keep it well watered until it settles in. The existing growth will probably die down, but soon it will start putting up new growth. Don't harvest the first year, but the second year you can harvest sparingly. Once it's established, it's pretty care free except for the annual side dressing of compost. If you want to prolong the harvest, cut off any bloom stalks before they open. Leaving the bloom stalks will cause the rhubarb stems to become woody and unusable. This usually happens when it gets hot out anyway though.
This message was edited May 31, 2008 8:38 PM
I am going to start growing rhubarb too.... my neighbor has me hooked on it... she grows it and has made me strawberry pies.... oh my goodness.... i have never tried it before we moved here... but man i love it... I am going to have to find a spot where my ground is good... i keep composting & adding manure every year... it's getting better but might not be good enough for a heavy feeder yet.... but i think it looks pretty too.. never mind the flavor
Doubt there is a site like this around anymore but the best "barb" grew behind the outhouse.
This is usless information but it gives you an idea about how much fertilizer the plant wants.
LOL... that's not useless info... but made me laugh anyway... my neighbor has such great dirt... she has been just mulching every year but for years and years.... amazing how much better her ground is compared to mine right next door... we have all new gardens that weren't there when we bought the house.... and mostly clay & rocks... it still amazes me every year in the bed that i plant annuals in tons of rock manages to push it's way up to the surface every year and I just keep removing them EVERY YEAR.... I find when a perennial does not return it usually because a rock pushed it's way up under the plant and cut the life support off ... I always dig super deep now for each plant and back fill with garden soil to take up the gaps when I remove all the rocks... takes me longer but hopefully will help in the long run... but not sure if it's ever going to stop
I don't mean to throw cold water on your dreams but we have the same soil problems. Everytime I put the shovel into the ground there is either a root or a rock, some the size of potatoes and some like basketballs.
We mulched this year(new house) and when I dig a hole I mix some of the finer mulch with the clay.Neighbor gardener has been doing the same thing for years, she also adds pottongmix and topsoil where she is putting in a large number of plants.
I don't remember much of my earth science but I imagine there are more rocks in both of our futures, they come up through frost action duering the winter.
I can dream can't I?
;)
I have said since we started the gardens... the one thing I can grow great are rocks... at least it's something
I save all my previous years potting mix from my containers just to fill the gaps of the boulders we pull up now and then... honey just loves me when I am trying to plant a 3" container and yell for him to lift out the 12 x 12" rock out of the spot
I noticed one of my two blanket flower - lemon & orange did not return... I can bet you that a big ole rock is under there right now
Thanks for the rhubarb info. I also started a garden where there had been none and added tons of topsoil (later shitched to pottingsoil - just hought it worked better), compost, lime, bonemeal and on and on. I try to incorporate some of the rocks in the garden partly because i cna't get rid of some and partly because I like the way they look.
It's nice to know other people are also uffering New England soil : )