Rhubarb in pots

[Mrs Gumboot]

Trying to think a little ahead for a change!

Have only just moved into a new house and veggie plot area is currently under a lot of paving slabs. Am planning to lift them & get some planting areas in early spring (weather depending!). However, I currently have three rhubarb plants that have spent the last few months happily sitting in a variety of different sized buckets in the garden. I know the chances of this winter being as bad as the last one are (hopefully) remote, but does anyone know how they'll cope in cold weather? Don't want to lose them, but have no greenhouse/tunnel to bring them into. Only options are car port or garage. Since I'm due to drop a baby sometime over the next couple of weeks it's unlikely I'll remember to water them, but I'm guessing once they've gone dormant this won't be a problem?

Any help to ensure a future crop is greatly appreciated. We like rhubarb  ;D

[Mrs Gumboot]

[:(]

Theyll be fine. Be careful about watering unless its very mild, you dont want them rotting. Professional rhubarb growers lift the crowns and leave them on the soil to get frosted. I tried it and lifted a crown I wanted to split and make a new bed with. It sat on the soil throught the winter got frozen, snowed on, wet etc etc everything the weather threw at it. I sliced it up with a spade and planted it out and its fine. Where I sliced it up I must have cut off a tiny piece of root about an inch long and not noticed it and a few weeks later a new tiny rhubarb plant popped up. Thats now a big healthy plant too. I think you have to try really hard to kill the stuff.

Good luck with the sprog-in-waiting  :)

[Mrs Gumboot]

That's fantastic weequinie thanks. Will now sit back & figure out where it's going to go next year.  :)

One of the ones in pots is a bit that got missed when someone else moved theirs at the beginning of the season. The size it's got to in a bucket this year should have given me a hint I guess ::)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Just leave them; they'll be fine. Get them in as soon as you can so they've got plenty of time to settle in before spring.