Rhubarb as an annual?

[Elle's Garden]

Tim gave me a packet of rhubarb seeds for my birthday as a subtle hint for next near. I know that if you try to grow crowns you should not harvest more than a very few sticks the first year - but could it be grown as an annual - even in one of those large rubber trug type things? How many sticks would it be likely to produce if you are not trying to keep any to build up a crown? I can remember my mums rhubarb bed years ago, but have no more recent experience of it as a plant.

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Elle, in the first year they will only produce four to six stems, these are also only about half the normal size, and that is after growing all summer, so they might not even be that edible.

But you could try a couple and prove me wrong.

[alan refail]

Morning Elle

I have never grown rhubarb from seed, but I would agree with OH that the stalks will be very slender in the first year - you would need a lot of plants to get much of a crop.

Have a look at this (American) site:

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/fromseed

[Elle's Garden]

Thanks Alan and OH, a useful link as always Alan! I suppose all I can do is give it a go and see what happens - if nothing is worth harvesting then I can just leave it to grow on. I'll let you know if I discover anything earth shattering - somehow I think not!

[Johnboy]

Hi Elle,
I have grown several varieties of Rhubarb from seed and have found over the years that it is not marketable until the end of the second year and when sold the the advice to the buyer is not to really pick anything meaningful until the year following planting and that really means that it is in it's fourth year that it really produces.
That's fine for a nursery selling thousands of plants but really it is best to beg borrow or st--l a root or two. For sure it will be quicker.
Certainly there is a sense of achievement when you your grow something from seed however long it takes to mature. I know it tastes better!
JB.

[Elle's Garden]

Thanks Johnboy,
The site that Alan linked me to showed me that it probably is not a viable proposition, but I shall sow the seed and see what happens - if we have to wait for a year or three, the so be it.
I know what you mean about things that you sow - I sowed all my plants last year, but someone else gave me a few cabbages and tomatoes of unknown origins. I never felt the same caring way about these plant as I did those that I sowed from seed. Silly really because I grew them on from tiny plants and they performed really well!

[Johnboy]

Hi Elle,
Its called sense of achievement. The satisfaction that you get from all the preparation to sowing the seed and nurturing this small life form through infancy to adulthood. They we eat it! Strange really isn't it?
But when you sit down to a meal composed of everything you have grown
you know that all the toil and troubles have been worthwhile.
Elle I have been growing on my own account since 1943 and the thrill I get from producing good wholesome food is as alive now as it was when I started. Amen!
JB.