Chicken deficient Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 We have 2 rhubarb plants that we have had growing for a few years, but not harvested yet, to give it a chance to get going. This year we were planning on picking some, but one plant tried to bolt very early this year and has got huge fat green stems. The other has skinny little green stems. Our neighbour's rhubarb has normal sized pink stems. Does anyone have any tips? They had a good mulch of compost with chicken poo and have been watered during dry spells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couperwife Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 They usually bolt when they aren't happy. Ours are doing the same as yours. Im picking it and using it as normal. When it goes dormant you need to dig it up, chop it in half and replant it. It should perk up next year if the bit you dig up is big enough, you could cut it into 4. Hope that helps. Cathy X Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken deficient Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 Thanks yes - it has not been divided since we planted it. Is it ok to eat it green then? Does it taste ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 cut the flower stems off as soon as you see them to stop the plant putting energy into the flowers. any 'sticks' that are over 20mm thick remove and compost they will be far to tuff and sour to eat young thin sticks are the sweetest to eat, if you have a lot of 'sticks' the just use the bottom red part with 2 or 4 whole 'sticks'. really young thin 'sticks' are really nice eaten fresh with or without sugar I quite often pick one or two when I'm on the plot to eat there and then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 We have a huge rhubarb patch which is the envy of our allotment site, we inherited it with the plot and have moved it a couple of times since, it is due to be moved again this year. For the past 4 or 5 years it has flowered fairly early ion the season, but this hasn't affected the quality or quantity of the sticks produced year on year. Most of the rhubarb on our allotment site flowers and when people remove the large flower spikes as we did once too, the rest of the plant just collapses, so we leave well alone. Rhubarb takes many years from a small plant to develop to full strength, it is better to start with a large crown from somebody else's established patch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicken deficient Posted June 20, 2013 Author Share Posted June 20, 2013 Thank you for all your advice. I had a good go at it this morning. All the huge stems are now in the compost. I had already cut off the flowering stems, so I'm hoping it won't collapse now! Once it was thinned out, I could see that it does need dividing - there are several crowns now to each plant. Also, the middle had gone rather sluggy and mildewy in places, so I took out the worst affected of the young stems too. I even managed to collect a few stems for eating as well. I'm hoping now that we'll get a few more nice juicy red bits! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
