How to grow them
Plant crowns in winter with the bud just showing, in soil with plenty of manure. Do not pull any stems in the first year. Cover a crown with a bucket in January for pale, sweet forced stems in March.
Fruit and perennials
Rhubarb
Plant it once in a corner and it will outlast your tenancy.
- Buy as
- Crowns
- Space
- 90cm between plants, 90cm between rows
- Position
- Sun or light shade
- Rotation
- Permanent bed
- Difficulty
- Easy
The year
Plant
Harvest
When to pick
Pull the stems, do not cut them. Stop by the end of July to let the plant recover. Never eat the leaves: they are poisonous.
What goes wrong
Problems, and what to do
Thin, weak stems
A tired crown. Dig it up in winter, split it with a spade and replant the outer pieces.
Flowering
Cut flower stalks out at the base.
Same family
More from fruit and perennials
StrawberriesThe plants crop well for three years. Peg down runners to make new ones for free.
RaspberriesA row will crop for ten years. Autumn-fruiting kinds are the simplest: cut everything to the ground in February.
BlackcurrantsOne bush gives four or five kilos of fruit, and it asks for almost nothing.
GooseberriesThe first fruit of the summer, and happy in a shadier corner.
AsparagusTwo years of patience, then twenty years of spears every May.