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I've inherited in the garden three rhubarb crowns which last year produced a reasonable crop. However this year it is pathetic, what has grown is thin and weak.  What can I do now or later to make sure that next years is better. My first time looking after rhubarb.....

Give them a bit of water now.  If they don't recover then leave them alone (that means don't pick any stalks or remove any stalks and let them die away) until end september.  Then give a good covering of well rotted manure.  Chicken pellets and blood fish and bone will also help in September.

The crowns will recover.  I have had a good crop this year but they have started to die away now.  It could be that the crowns you have are early varieties.

By the way I always feel that my rhubarb crop more than compensates for the allotment fee.  So my advice is "give them time".

Bill

Sounds like a plan. Thanks Bill, will give it a go.

Hi,

Still with the subject of rhubarb, when I pick the stalks, do I pick them all and just leave the crown to produce more next year?

Thanks in advance.

On advice from this site I feed my rhubarb loads. 

I gave my buckets and buckets full of dandelion leaves.  They act as a mulch and the leaves of the rhubarb do not let them grow,  I also pile up weeds under my rhubarb.   Anything like tough grass and thistles without the flowers which I do not put in the compost bin. 

I personally do not take all the stems from the rhubarb I think they need something to live on but some people do.

For picking, I only take away a few stems each week, and I find that the plant produces all through the season. I do not pick after beginning of August and let the plant absorb itself. mine get progressively bigger each year.
In winter they like a nice thick layer of muck around them and I usually rake a few handfuls of natural fertilizer granules into them in around June. They like a lot of water too :-)

On the subject of rhubarb, I planted two new crowns about 6 weeks ago.  Both had quite strong growth on them.  One poked it's nose out, then we got heavy, thundery rain - and now no rhubarb.

Any ideas what's happened to them?

Yes rhubarb hate being watched.

Seriously keep them watered and leave them well alone.  Don't be tempted to clear the soil away from the top.

when you planted them did you feed the soil with blood fish and bone or growmore?  If not give them a little feed whenyou water them, not too much though.

Manure them in September and don't pick any stalks until February 2016.

Good rhubarb is worth the wait.  Only pick a few stalks from each plant (see Antipodes reply) but if they are all ripe pick a few more and freeze them.  You will know when to pick and when to leave after a few years.

Rhubarb (forced is best) cooked in red wine and honey over a very low heat is, well yummy,  let the rhubarb cool and use in an Eaton mess without the strawberries.


Regards

Bill

Thanks for the advice on rhubarb cropping as well as the general info.  I know about some things but have never grown rhubarb before so in this am a complete novice.

Quote from: Bill Door on May 20, 2014, 17:12:24
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Manure them in September and don't pick any stalks until February 2016.

2016 !!!!! What am I to til then !!!!!!!!!  Oh well hope it's worth the wait 

Bill's reply is rather a subjective one. Some people prefer not to pick rhubarb in its first year after planting. However I found that if there was plenty of growth, you can still pick a bit the first year, just don't go too mad. It grows on the growth it reabsorbs over the end of autumn. I really don't see why you would wait till 2016 to pick any!!!

My rhubarb's been here well over 10 years (it was here when I moved in) and it's been neglected and it's a bit rubbish too - usually get a few fat stalks and a million thin ones (they all taste good though). I dug it up and split it into pieces and replanted about 5 years ago which made no difference at all, I rarely take more then 1/4 of the stems and now it's full of weeds.

And with the state of my back at the moment, bending over to weed for anything more then a few minutes or any kind of digging is out of the question. Any thoughts?

My reply is the same Silverleaf.  A huge pile of weeds in a ring round the plant at least six inches deep, anything except nettles or bindweed.   Keep topping up the pile all summer.   It will suppress weeds, keep in the moisture and provide nutrients.   

I have had brilliant rhubarb two years running and there is currently no remaining signs of last years pile it has all rotted away and no weeds near the plants either.

My rhubarb was looking magnifient on Monday morning when I left home to go to Chelsea.  I came home last night to find it ahs been flattened by strong winds and chewed to bits by a furore of hailstones as thoug a herd of slugs had gone through it taking bites out of the stems.   

It isn't going to sit up again so I expect I'm going to have to cut it all off and dump it on the compost heap.   Is it worth giving it a feed in the hopes it will send up new shoots?

All sorts of other plants have been shredded too - blackcurrants, blueberries, broccoli, salads in the veg area then hostas, ligularia, clematis, phomis, foxgloves, ornamental rhubarb, wisteria.........   So dispiriting.

If you've got any grass cuttings, dump them on the rhubarb. It loves the nitrogen. The other thing it likes is moisture.

Grass cuttings I can do, when Him Indoors next does the lawn. I have access to horse manure as well, is it worth putting some of that on now or wait until autumn?

And is it okay to cover the leaves up?

Put the horse muck on any time and don't be inhibited about it. The more the merrier. Covering the leaves isn't likely to inhibit anything as strong as rhubarb, though I'd brush it off them myself.

Make sure it's well rotted manure or the urine content will burn the plants.

OH has now cut all my smashed rhubarb plants back to reveal bare crowns.  I shall go and give them a liquid feed to help them along.  Hope that works on the denuded blueberries and blackcurrants and the mangled broccoli and cabbages. 

I have access to as much horse manure as I want to collect, and it's nicely rotted. I'll dump some on it then, thank you!

I think it is generally quite well-known that rhubarb flourishes on manure, or as we say in the Midlands "You cannot kill rhubarb by dumping manure on it".
I was priviliged to prove this in practice a couple of years ago when an over-enthusiastic farmer dumped a big load in the wrong place. I cleared most of it but part of my rhubarb bed remained buried thigh deep until autumn. The rhubarb leaves just had longer stalks, no hassle.