Love it or hate it, but learn how to grow rhubarb for tasty puddings and beautiful foliage.
This beautiful plant has long been a favourite for us. We started with one rhubarb plant container and now have 6 plants in our vegetable beds.
Often people talk about Rhubarb leaves being toxic. The leaves contain oxalic acid which is a toxin and makes them inedible. The stalks are the edible part, which are green at the top and deep rubyatt the bottom.
How to grow rhubarb – planting
I have never grown rhubarb from seed and just choose to buy them in punnets form the nursery. Choose a fun sun position and enrich your planting site with lots of compost. If you have clayey soil the plant will not thrive, so try to correct this before planting.
Long term care & harvesting
Keep the plant well watered and mulch with grass clippings of compost. When your plants are well estalished you can start cutting off the outer large leaves. Do not cut everything off, especially not the unfurled leaves. Your plants will enter a dormant stage in winter when you can dig in compost around them. After 4 years you can lift the crowns and only plant back the newer ones, discarding any old woody crowns.
Quick Notes
When to plant: Almost all year unless in a snow area.
How many plants: 6 – 8 plants.
How long to harvest: 5 – 10 weeks at the end of summer
Successive planting: None needed as this is a perennial.
EASY RHUBARB RECIPE
Combine 4 cups of strawberries (halved) and 4 cups of rhubarb stalks (chopped) with 1/2 cup of honey.Mix together 2 cups of oats, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of ww flour, 1/2 cup melted butter and sprinkle over rhubarb and strawberries.
Bake until crispy and bubbling.
I serve this with vanilla ice cream as the rhubarb is very tart and the hot and cold go together superbly!
Add the trimmed leaves to your compost pile! Recipe taken from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (P.S.)
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