Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Luvachicken]

My little rhubarb is about 3-4 years old now.

It's not massive and I've never picked any of it before.

On Gardener's World the other day, Monty said you should put a forcer on the rhubarb, so I went out and bought a tall terracotta flower pot. I've put it over the rhubarb and covered the hole but what do I do now ?

How long do I leave it on for ?

Do I pick some and leave it to recover and then put the flower pot back on again say a month later ?

The flower pot has been on for almost a week.

[Valkyrie]

Have a look underneath to see if you have any stems. I've not done it either. When we first moved here there was a huge clump - it was great but then we moved it to our allotment and it wasn't happy there. Since then all new rhubarb plants purchased have sent up big flower heads but few leaves if any and died off. I have one in a pot at the moment but it looks like bursting into life again. I know if you do force them they need to be rested afterwards.

[sjp]

you only need to force it if you want any early crop of pale Rhubarb that's supposed to be sweeter I only did it once and to be honest it had next to no taste but the variety I'd got at the time wasn't an early one. the main one for forcing is 'Timperley Early' which only has a short season any way so has time recover but you only need to cover it for a week or two this late in the season

as for the flowers cut them of as soon as you see them otherwise they take all of the plant energy out of growing the stems it won't do any harm to the plant removing them as you don wont the seed the flowers smell horrible any way as their fly pollinated

[Valkyrie]

Sadly I did remove the flower heads as soon as I saw them. They still died. Perhaps they just hated the soil. Looks like I'm going to have to try another part of the garden in that case!!! I've seen the Timperly variety at the garden centre the other day. I was sorely tempted but I bought a plant last year (can't remember the name - it looked fab in the pot but never got to plant it). Thought it had died but it's shooting up again! So I'm hoping that if I pop it into a larger pot we'll be able to take it with us when we move if it's any good.

[jasperaliceuk]

I'm just trying for the first time too. Asked for a forcer for Xmas but have bought on of the plastic ones - which was still bleeping expensive! Anyway its been covered since end January and they are coming up nicely. There was a layer of straw on top and it definitely feels warmer when you put your hand in. Presumably once I've harvested it you put the forcer away and use it on a different plant next winter so that this one can recover.

[sjp]

you can force the plant again next year because all your doing really is bringing it on a few weeks early and if your growing 'Timperley Early' you only really get 2 or 3 cutting off it before it goes sour any way. it's when rhubarb gets put into the forcing sheds that basically exhausts the plant so the rhubarb farms use the older crowns from fields that have become over grown with rhubarb the keep the best for replanting and the rest gets left out to over winter then they get put into the sheds the get dumped at the end of the forcing period

[Luvachicken]

Thanks everybody

 

I have Timperly early

The man at the garden centre said proper rhubarb forcers are about £30-£40 - that's why I bought a large pot for £7.50.

I think I will leave the pot on until the middle of the week and then harvest some and then leave the poor little plant to enjoy the Summer.

Rhubarb and custard I think

[sjp]

old black dustbins large clay pots I've even seen tin baths used to force rhubarb as long as it keeps the light out and is big enough to let the stems grow to about 12inchs then anything can be used

[Luvachicken]

Fortunately the flower pot has a little hole at the top, which I covered with a brick, but I did have a little peek in the hole today and was quite surprised to see the leaf right at the top

Getting quite excited about taking the pot off.

[Valkyrie]

I can imagine the "oooooh!"

[Luvachicken]

I can imagine the "oooooh!"

 

 

Will find out at tea time