Tony Fawcett’s guide to planting and growing rhubarb in your garden
Rhubarb growing rules are simple, when you know what they are.
I LOVE those plants that keep giving while making few demands. Rhubarb is perhaps the best of the best.
Get it going and it rewards for years. Divide clumps every five years or so and it’s yours for a lifetime.
We’re so lucky in Victoria because we have the chilling winter temperatures that prime rhubarb so perfectly.
In Queensland they must go to absurd extremes, such as plonking rhubarb crowns in a refrigerator for a month before planting.
Rhubarb growing rules are simple.
WHEN TO PLANT
FROM now until early spring is the perfect time to get crowns in.
WHAT RHUBARB NEEDS
THIS vegetable of the rheum genus thrives in slightly acidic soil (pH about 6.5) that drains well and gets a good amount of sun.
Before planting, build up the soil with good amounts of compost, manure (decayed chook or cow is ideal) and a handful of blood and bone.
Space crowns 80cm apart – although if you’ve got the space go for a metre. You’ll appreciate the extra come harvest time.
Crowns should be just showing above ground.
Water in well. I like to add a thick mulch of old pine needles, which tend to add just the right amount of acidity.
RED OR GREEN?
MY PREFERENCE is red. Seems to taste better. Yet many go for green.
The biggest disappointment for some gardeners is growing what they think is red, only to discover down the track it is green. Generally the reason is they have bought small seed-grown rhubarb plants assuming they will be red ones.
Some “reds” turn out reddy-green, lacking that rich ruby red that seems to set the best strains apart.
Some cooks even turn their stewed green rhubarb red by adding colouring or raspberry or strawberry flavoured gelatine. Crazy!
Interestingly, some of the reddest, sweetest rhubarb is grown in hothouses.
WHEN TO PICK
NEVER, but never, pick rhubarb stalks until a plant is at least a year old. If you can wait longer then all the better. The trick is to allow the plant to build up its strength and size.
WHEN TO DIVIDE
THE best time is early spring once soils have started to warm.
Ideally, divide a mature plant of four or five years.
You can dig into the root clump and extract pieces, but it’s far easier to dig up the entire clump and then divide. Use a sharp-bladed spade and divide into sections, each with a good amount of roots and two or three buds. Replant straight away into prepared soil.
WHAT TO DO WITH FLOWERS
SNAP them off at the base so they don’t rob the plant of energy.
Sure, you can collect the seed to create new plants but you’re better off dividing your own mature clumps.
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW
NOT all rhubarbs are the same. When you get a good one, hang on to it. The best ones inevitably are those acquired from friends who have been growing a proven plant for yonks.
If you can cadge a division or two, go for it. You can buy seed-raised rhubarb quite cheaply from garden centres, but getting a good-tasting variety is something of a lottery.
When I see my crisp red rhubarb growing beautifully I like to remind myself that in 1600s England it reportedly cost more than opium.
Now I have never experienced opium, thankfully, but I can’t imagine a higher high than munching into freshly grown and cooked rich red rhubarb, with a dash of ice-cream or baked with strawberries in a pie.
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
PLANT lots of Asian greens, cabbage, lettuce, onions spinach, spring onions, radish, turnips and swedes.
GET IN drifts of bearded iris, dahlias, gladioli and liliums for a colourful spring and summer.
MORE
TIME TO GET YOUR TOMATO SEEDS GROWING
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