Patty

I took over Moms gardens for her last year and have never grown rhubarb. Does anyone know if I cut those seed tops off to produce more stalks. I didn't last year and didn't get enough yield for even a couple pies.

Brian Devon

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When I was a kid, and there was nothing much going on at home, my Dad would come up to me and ask "Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb"? It always made us both laugh...God knows why. Unfortunately he is gone now. I should have asked him as to where he got that expression. My only real exposure to rhubarb was at the market. It looked like red celery. Never did see it as pie on any restaurant menu. What's it like???

Blacksheep

Yes, you cut off the flowering tops as soon as they come up. Otherwise the plant goes to seed and stops growing, and you want it to keep growing, of course, so you can harvest the stalks.

About the stalks, you should stop harvesting by early July. Then the plant can continue to grow larger for winter hibernation, which it needs, plus the stalks start getting woody and lose their flavor by then.

If you do it like that, the plants will keep getting larger each year with a greater and greater yield. Rhubarb plants can live as long as 40 years. I can't grow them where I've moved now because it gets too hot for them in summer and they die. But I love rhubarb pie and it's still reasonably priced in the stores.

Hint... I buy up a pile of the early harvest because it has the best flavor and freeze one pies worth per freezer bag. Then I can have pie right through winter if I don't get too greedy about it. :P

Patty

Its pretty tart but with sugar it makes a nice pie. Also boiled down with some sugar it makes a good ice cream topping.
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/perfect-rhubarb-pie

Patty

Thanks. I hope it isn't to late. I know not to take more than 1/3 of what is there but don't remember how I know that.


:lol:

Blacksheep

Check my first reply, I added more info. And yes, be careful not to over-cut. In fact, wait until those flower tops start appearing to be sure your plant has reached full stalk growth. Then cut off some, and the less the better. The plant will put out plenty more stalks to make up for what you take, if you don't overdo it.

Patty

Thanks B I just cut off the seed stem at the bottom where the first leaf starts. A lot of the "bulb" top is out of the ground. Do I put more dirt around them or just leave them the way they are.

jonhatfield Loc: Green Bay, WI

Seed stalk cutting does not produce new growth with rhubarb. Since we never used the rhubarb from the patch I planted when we lived in the country or from the plant on the corner of our new house here in Green Bay, I never knew whether cutting back the leaves would produce new growth. I take it you did harvest stalks and there wasn't enough new growth to make a difference, so I would guess if one wants more rhubarb it's a matter of planting more. Rhubarb deserts are a favorite. but the plants aren't exactly attractive at any stage. ha. No problem out in the country where there's space off to the side. A side question is when to pick stalks and whether some should be left for plant survival. I've read somewhere that rhubarb becomes poisonous later in season (the reason I've never picked our stalks), but that may be an old wives' tale. ha. Maybe we should both research rhubarb for pies instead of researching rhubarb for OPP rhubarbs. ha. I'm going to google rhubarb before it's too late this spring to finally after all these years know to pick stalks for a pie! Need to get away from these OPP rhubarbs. :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Blacksheep

Jh is wrong. In the first place, those aren't seed stalks, they're flower stalks.

Cutting them DOES promote new growth. Google any nursery that sells rhubarb and check their info. I know what I'm talking about, I've been gardening for most of my 75 years.

If you DON'T cut off those flower stalks, you will find your leaf stalk growth stopping. As you have already experienced.

As for "more dirt" I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean more dirt around the base of the plants, no. You don't need to do that. The flower stalks do have bulbs at the top before they open, you cut that bulb off a little below the base of the bulb. They grow up mostly out of the center of the plant, so again, I don't know what you mean by "more dirt", you sure don't want to pile dirt in the middle of the plant. More questions?

Blacksheep

Rhubarb NEVER becomes "more poisonous". The leaves of rhubarb are ALWAYS poisonous. But not the stalks. And jh doesn't need to google rhubarb to know how to pick stalks, all he has to do is read what I wrote here.

Blacksheep

Maybe you should pay attention to what I'm telling Patty instead of ignoring my good advice.

Patty

I don't know if Mom has let the dirt wash away or not but sticking out of the dirt where the stalks come from it looks like a knot of a tree is the best way to describe it. Its right at dirt level. I know I wouldn't want to cover the base of the stalks but wonder if some more dirt should be added to cover the out borders of the "knots or "bulbs" It almost looks like a Horse radish root but browner, rougher and bigger.

jonhatfield Loc: Green Bay, WI

Picky sheepie, picky. The original question was 'seed' stalk cutting and new growth. By the time "flower stalks" are "seed stalks," do you think there's new growth for further harvesting? Does cutting the "flower" stalk really result in new stalks? That's what the issue was--further stalks for harvesting. Was all that worth making a rhubarb about flower vs. seed stalk, sheepie? And do you have real experience about new stalks from cutting those "flower" stalks or just made it up? If there are new stalks, are they vigorous and enough growth suitable for harvesting like the original spring growth? The rhubarb devil is in the rhubarb details...am I being picky enough? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Blacksheep

Oh. Yeah, that's normal. They do that. When the plant dies down in winter what you have left is this gnarly root looking thing that expands in width with age. Don't pile dirt on it, but in the fall it would be good to cover it with a layer of mulch an inch or more thick to give it more frost protection.

I swear, jon will pick a fight anywhere without any respect for the subject. I'm here to talk about rhubarb, not deal with some cantankerous jackass and I'm not going to get drawn into it and there will be no reply.

Patty

He only gets the strawberry/rhubarb Jello there on the ward and that is only if he goes all day without messing himself.