Forum home› The potting shed
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Rhubarb transplant

vershop62vershop62 Posts: 4
in The potting shed
ive just dug up some rhubarb plants from an old garden and replanted them immediately. They don’t look that healthy. They’ve all got some stalks but mostly thin. I’ve replanted them on top of some commercial farmyard manure and soaked them well. I’m not sure  whether I should start feeding them immediately. I’ve heard liquid seaweed is what I should use. Any suggestions would be helpful.
thank you

 

Posts

  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Hallo vershop, and welcome to our jolly forum! If your plants have been neglected, I should think their greatest need just now will be for water, given how dry it's been for so many weeks.  As you've given them a good soaking, have you anything you can mulch them with, to help retain that water?  I shouldn't think they'd need liquid feed in addition to the manure you've given them; the nutrients in that should last them a good while, and do more to improve the soil structure than liquid feeds.  Some varieties have thicker stalks than others, so yours might not get much thicker; do you know what variety they are?  Don't harvest any this year, so they have a chance to get established, and next year, harvest them lightly.
  • vershop62vershop62 Posts: 4
    Thanks so much. No idea what they are. I dug them up from what was a garden for mental health support, which has now been sold and is being developed for housing. The stalks have all fallen over, flat to the ground. I suspect they haven’t seen any water in a few months! I was hoping they would pick up so I could harvest some later but do th8nk that would be harmful? Thanks again
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited May 2020
    Definitely don’t pick any in the year you’ve transplanted it and only lightly the next year. 

    After that never pick more than a third of the stems at a time and stop picking at the end of June to let the crown build up to provide the growth the following year. 

    Give it plenty of water in the summer. A bucket full
     twice a week at the moment. More when it’s bigger.  Feed with FB&B now and in February and mulch.  In autumn cover the root area with well rotted manure if at all possible. Garden compost if not. 

    If it starts to put up a flower spike twist it off at the base so it doesn’t use all its energy making a flower. 

    Look after it and you’ll have loads of rhubarb in a couple of years. 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • vershop62vershop62 Posts: 4
    that’s great. Thank you. How much FB&B per plant per week should I use?
    thanks  
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Only a couple of times a year ... not each week!

    i give mine a small handful scattered over a square metre. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • vershop62vershop62 Posts: 4
    Thanks Somy h. Hopefully mine will look like yours in a couple of years. 
Sign In or Register to comment.