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

Really large rhubard - how long to get to that size?

M33R4M33R4 Posts: 291
UK peeps please would you share pics and plant care of your impressive rhubard plants please? I have rhubarb envy  :#
I wish I could garden all year round!
«1

Posts

  • M33R4M33R4 Posts: 291
    pansyface said:
    .....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle

    It originated in Siberia, so if you have similar conditions where you live, you are on the way to success.🙂
    Wow never knew there was a particular location required  :/
    I wish I could garden all year round!
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Rhubarb is only just beginning to unfurl its first leaves at this time of year so you'll have to wait or hope people have photos from previous summers' growth.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • M33R4M33R4 Posts: 291
    My young Rhubarb a few years ago.



    Totally impressed! Any care regime please?
    I wish I could garden all year round!
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    You cannot see it but sunk down near the roots are 3 x long plastic drain pipes.
    Every day in summer I pour water into the tubes.
    That way the water reaches the roots rather than evaporating on the surface.
    If I don't do that the rhubarb flowers and goes to seed.
    In winter I try to dump a heap of well rotted compost over it.
    I get so much rhubarb I cannot eat it all.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • M33R4M33R4 Posts: 291
    You cannot see it but sunk down near the roots are 3 x long plastic drain pipes.
    Every day in summer I pour water into the tubes.
    That way the water reaches the roots rather than evaporating on the surface.
    If I don't do that the rhubarb flowers and goes to seed.
    In winter I try to dump a heap of well rotted compost over it.
    I get so much rhubarb I cannot eat it all.
    I am used to putting pipes too around my sensitive plants to ensure they get water. Thank you Silver surfer  :)

    I wish I could garden all year round!
  • SkandiSkandi Posts: 1,723
    While I'm not in the UK I have a climate similar to the west coast of Scotland, just a little bit dryer This is two years after division and it's fairly early in the year Probably early June. It did get bigger than that. The dog is a lab/collie X to give some scale.
    I don't do anything to my rhubarb, I divide it when it gets to big and replant in a hole with a bucket of compost, it gets no other feed, compost or watering.

  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We picked our first rhubarb harvest last week. Not huge sticks but enough for 2 desserts for 2 days. They always start in Jan and even with the cold spells they continued to grow. We always cover them with our own compost and we have had them in situ now since 1978! But the plants have set offsprings and these are the ones that have continued.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Moisture retentive soil is a huge advantage for rhubarb, as is reasonably fertile soil.
    Adding manure, as @Silver surfer mentions, is the norm to give it a boost if the soil isn't particularly fertile.
    My Grandpa always grew it. I don't remember him adding anything special to it. My ex did the same - it just grew without any help. 

    It certainly grows readily over here @Skandi - west Scotland. Fertile clay soil and moisture. What it enjoys most.  ;)

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • I think variety has something to do with cropping as well.
    I love rhubarb but struggle to grow it in my thin, gritty, low fertile rubbish of soil. I am at last, after several years of feeding with farm yard manure, beginning to be able to pull a few stems from the two roots I planted. One has always grown more strongly than the other. The weaker growing clump is Timperleys Early. I think the other clump is Victoria. My daughter who has deep, rich, moist soil, only a few miles from me grows huge stems on massive clumps grown from seed.
Sign In or Register to comment.