Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Deb P on May 03, 2023, 14:16:39
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I had 5 crowns of rhubarb in a bed near my shed, one purchased Pink Champagne and 4 Victoria I had grown from seed. All fruited well last year but quickly stopped producing and withered away. In the hot summer despite watering and thickly mulching the crowns looked a lot smaller and frankly dead. The bed was too dry, being sheltered by the shed, so I decided to create another permanent rhubarb bed in a less sheltered bit of the plot. I covered the old bed in thick black plastic and left it overwinter until now……
Today I noticed a tear in the plastic and on further examination the rhubarb was not only alive but had been forced and had a load of lovely pink new growth! I took a pic after I had already picked a load of stems for a rhubarb and custard tart, so it looks like I’m going to end up with two rhubarb beds! :sunny:
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I wish I could grow it here but it hates the heat and just dies in the middle of summer. Third go this year, from seed, in a very shady bed - fingers crossed.
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I have found rhubarb likes a lot of mulching. I put piles of weeds underneath it. Everything except stinging nettles. Dandelions are particularly good.
My best patch is behind a jostaberry which seems to allow the sun onto the rhubarb early in the year but keeps it shaded later on. The jostaberry likes the mulching as well.
I am a fan of Timperley Early, I like the flavour. I put a dalek style compost bin over it, it keeps it warm early in the year. The stems end up .75 of a meter tall. The green leaves come out of the top.
Is it possible to put a rhubarb crown into the refrigerator or freezer during the heat of the summer?