Does anyone have any advice about flowering rhubarb?!
I planted 3 small rhubarb plants last spring which grew really well and I was able to harvest some stalks in late summer.
Due to the unusually mild winter here (I'm in Austria where we normally have a lot of snow!, which was comparable with a mild British winter, my rhubarb plants didn't really die back and continued to grow.
I inspected my plants last weekend and noticed that they appear to be starting to flower.
Local opinion seems to be divided as to whether I should remove the flowers or leave them.
I would appreciate any advice as I don't want to leave the flowers if they will hinder stalk production, but don't want to remove them if it will damage my plants!
Flowering Rhubarb
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
Hello Derwengoch
The usual advice is to always remove flowering stalks from rhubarb. The serve no useful purpose and draw energy away from leaf and stalk production.
Don't be in too much of a hurry to pull stalks from your young plants. Feed them well and let them get properly established with at least one year's full growth then only harvest lightly in the second year. You need to get the crowns really well established before you can start harvesting regularly.
John
The usual advice is to always remove flowering stalks from rhubarb. The serve no useful purpose and draw energy away from leaf and stalk production.
Don't be in too much of a hurry to pull stalks from your young plants. Feed them well and let them get properly established with at least one year's full growth then only harvest lightly in the second year. You need to get the crowns really well established before you can start harvesting regularly.
John
The Gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men’s lives, the hours spent fishing Assyrian tablet
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
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Derwengoch
- KG Regular
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:50 am
- Location: Austria
Hello John
Thank you for the advice!
I have now removed all rhubarb flowers in sight and will take care not to over-harvest this year.
Kind regards,
Derwengoch
Thank you for the advice!
I have now removed all rhubarb flowers in sight and will take care not to over-harvest this year.
Kind regards,
Derwengoch
a gardening novice!
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fen not fen
- KG Regular
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- Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:54 am
- Location: north lincolnshire
I haven't harvested any stalks from my new rhubarb patch and they are all flowering. I notice another more established patch nearby is doing the same. Why are they doing this? I'm sure I don't remember rhubarb putting up flower heads til mid-summer before.
Hi Fen,
Here we are in a kind of drought and I feel that plants, like Rhubarb, are put under stress and when stressed they head up to flower.
So what I am trying to say is that lack of moisture can cause flowering.
In Derwengoch's case it could be the absence of the usual melt water from the winter snow causing stress.
I sowed 22 acres of Spring Barley 12 days ago and although we have had no rainfall the germination is very high but if there is no rainfall in the next week or so I could well be in difficulty.
JB
Here we are in a kind of drought and I feel that plants, like Rhubarb, are put under stress and when stressed they head up to flower.
So what I am trying to say is that lack of moisture can cause flowering.
In Derwengoch's case it could be the absence of the usual melt water from the winter snow causing stress.
I sowed 22 acres of Spring Barley 12 days ago and although we have had no rainfall the germination is very high but if there is no rainfall in the next week or so I could well be in difficulty.
JB