rhubarb from seed?

[alia]

i read that it was not a good idea to grow rhubarb from seed. of course, this just makes me want to try it!

does anyone have a strong feeling one way or the other?

i can either get many cheap rhubarb seeds from the US distributor of seeds of italy seeds, or get one plant from california for 5 times the price. (otoh, with the amount of space i have, i don't really have room for much more than that...)

appreciate your thoughts in advance.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alia,
Rhubarb is very easy to grow from seed but it really takes a long time before you will be able to pick any. (minimum three years) May I suggest that you try and beg, borrow or steal (metaphorically) a root from another gardener. With the size of your plot you really haven't got the room for more than one plant. Surely there must be somebody on your plot that already grows it. On most UK allotments there is always somebody who will oblige and give somebody a root.
JB.

[John]

Hello Alia
As JB says it's a long process if you want to grow rhubarb from seed. Another problem is that the plants you get will vary a bit, some good but some not so good. They are also much more likely to keep throwing up flower stalks.
If you only have room for one plant I think it would be worth you investing in a named variety like 'Stockbridge Arrow'. Is it available in the US? This has been a very vigorous variety for me - I'm able to cover it in the spring to get beautiful tender pink stalks but it will then recover and grow on to give the normal red stalks. Most varieties are not strong enough to give you two good crops.

John

[alia]

Alas, rhubarb is not very popular in the states. (This being our allotment's first year, no one has planted anything much more exciting than green tomatoes and red lettuce...)

the only stockbridge arrow stockists appear to be in england.

Chipmans Canada Red, valentine, or victoria seem to be the only named varieties around here. ("here" being what google can do in one page)

i don't suppose anyone has had any luck growing rhubarb in a container?

[John]

Hello again Alia
Whereabouts are you in the States? Rhubarb is really a crop for cooler growing areas. A cold spell in the winter is important for bud development and for good growth in our cool spring weather. A lot of rhubarb grown in backyards here is blanched in the Spring by simply covering the root with an upturned bucket or similar - this is often (wrongly) called 'forcing'. Commercially rhubarb is forced after a spell of frost by lifting the roots and moving them to warm dark sheds. The idea is to catch the market before soft fruits like strawberries and raspberries become available. The rhubarb season is quite short.
If your area has hot dry summers you might find the rhubarb won't thrive.

John

PS The Rhubarb Compendium at http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/
is an excellent site for all us rhubarb fans. I think it is a US based site so it should have a lot of useful growing info for you.

[alia]

thank you, john!

i'm in new york city, so we get plenty of cold winter weather-- but also hot dry summers. i'll check out the link.