After harvesting Rhubarb, put the leaves into a bucket and cover with water and allow to stand somewhere for 3 -4 weeks, drain the liquid and strain, and some liquid hand soap (few drops per litre) and then put into a sprayer, you now have a good natural insecticide...Steve...😃
Yes Due to the High Content of OXYALLIC ACID. Highly Poisonous to Eat Out of Season, Gather Rhubarb MAY to AUGUST Only. Store it , Freeze it, But every Stalk from September onwards is HIGHLY Poisonous. Hence the water from the Leaves will Kill Everything Around. Originally from Syberia. It will Kill everything around to Survive the next Season. South Facing Sunny Position Rhubarb will Live 50 + Years. The Same Place in Mum's Garden For Over 50 + Yrs. Yes in DAPPLED SUN / Shade From an Apple Tree. 50 / 50 sun & shade in the Sunny Season in West Yorkshire, UK. Drop a Few Shovels of Compost or Manure on it occasionally & Water it in the Hot Summer & it will Be Great & DeliverBig Long Fat Juicy Sticks All Season MAY to August.
I have a patch of family heirloom rhubarb. Not sure the variety. It came from my great grandmother’s rhubarb patch in Canada 53 years ago! My mother put the roots in one of my clean diapers so the border patrol wouldn’t look and take it. My dad planted it on the family estate and it grew! I now have my own patch of that rhubarb on my property. My parents are passed and the family estate has been sold, but the rhubarb lives on!
I moved to my new farmhouse last September and noticed the Rhubarb right away. It's all over my property and I didn't have to worry about planting it. I've made lots of Strawberry Rhubarb desserts already. Delish.
Rhubarb isn't really a 'thing' here in Japan; it's non-existent in the supermarkets so if you want it the only way is to grow your own. Every time I found a rhubarb seedling in the local garden centre (for some reason, always in the Herb section?) I would take it home, plant it and ... watch it die in the heat of summer. Two years ago, I tried putting my latest victim in a raised bed, with plenty of straw mulch and some left-over strawberry plants as companions, and covered with a canopy of hemp cloth to filter the scorching summer sun. This year, while my stems were nowhere near as luxuriant as the ones in the video, they were good enough to provide enough filling for three crumbles! Result!! Looking forward to an even better harvest next year.
@@KKIcons take courage, I have a friend who did manage to grow rhubarb in west Texas, where there was no water (when she turned on the drip hoses to water her garden in the morning, the well was pumping up sand in a short time) and the temps soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day in summer!
I had the same problem as you here in southern france the first few leaves were fried in the hot spring son , so like you I put up a sun shade and literaly this week it’s ready for our first harvest ,
Mmmm, rhubarb crumble and custard. A yummy classic. I have a friend who lives in West Yorkshire's mysterious and creepy 'Rhubarb Triangle'. Oh yes. The rhubarb's out there, people. Lock your doors and windows. Remember 'The Day of the Triffids' and be afraid...😲
I have been growing rhubarb for over 40 yrs. The key is to get good roots to plant and use lots of manure or compost. I got my (huge) chunks of root from my father in law who used to grow it commercially. Those scrawny roots you buy at the nurseries around here (Nova Scotia) are slow and pathetic. I planted my roots in 100% sheep manure 41 yrs ago and they show no sign of ever slowing down. I do very little maintenance except to remove the seed tops, divide the overgrown roots every 4-5 yrs, (and give them away) and occasionally spread a little seaweed around them. Dead leaves are left where they fall. Thanks for your video.
When I was a kid we were often given a stalk of rhubarb and a small handful of sugar - dip the rhubarb and the sugar take a bite. You certainly needed the sugar let's face it. :) And I've just inherited a garden with enough room to plant outside, so my rhubarb from containers has been put into a garden bed. The difference is incredible. They are growing much, much bigger.
In Newfoundland, everyone had a rhubarb patch in their backyard. I even found one under the patio steps in my apartment in New Brunswick. They’re almost like weeds! I would pick a stalk and eat it while biking to work.
My father kept a patch of rhubarb around the house I grew up in. This plant is the reason I love sweet and tart things. My mother would help us harvest it and turn it into strawberry rhubarb jams and pies. I just recently started my own patch of rhubarb.
Oh the wonders of rhubarb. I get teased for growing so much of it! The one benefit to rhubarb is that it is a wonderful rhizome barrier. I plant mine around the edge of one of my plots and it works wonders for suppressing crab grass. Another thing is, is that the leaves are great at ridding your yard of ants. Just on leaf on top of the hill then the ants disappear.
I'm going to test wrapping a rhubarb leaf around my apple tree the ants are farming aphids on... I'll let you know. Knowing my luck they will come out wearing tiny hazmat suits 😂
I remember my grandmothers patch in New York. It was huge. Mom and dad would come home with bags of it. Then we would have pie periodically throughout the year. It’s one of my favorites for making crisps. I forgot about this plant until last year when my neighbor gave me some.
I Simmer it & Drink the Juice. Rhubarb Crumble is Great & Easy to make. Sweeten Rhubarb by adding Eating Apples. NOT SUGAR, Honey is Better for you. Add to suit your taste.
Ben, thank you for your instructions! My grandfather, a farmer, brought me up on rhubarb. He taught me about the manure, moisture, and good flavor. He also told me to always break off the leaf end and tuck it under the other leaves to make a good mulch. His patch grew for over 40+ years. We've had ours for almost as long, and having cattle helps keep the raised bed full of wonderful rotted manure. Keep up the great work!!
Rhubarb Plants & Apple Trees seem to Like Eachother. As they Do When Cooked, Baked Eaten. My Rhubarb Grows 20 ft to the North of my Apple Tree. in 20% Shade in the UK.
Thank you for another great video. Last year I traded some of my cucumbers for some rhubarb. I then cooked the rhubarb with oranges and ginger and added sugar to taste this was delicious. I cooked it in the oven with a currant and mixed spice cobbler and served with custard. It was very nice
My rhubarb plants came with my property. I've been here just over 23 years. I don't know how long the plants were here before me, but they get massive and they keep expanding. Every year I dig up a bunch of crowns & give them to friends who want their own rhubarb plants. Even so I still end up with way too much rhubarb. 🤣
@@GrowVeg I'm glad you included tips on how to use it in other ways than as a pudding. I'd always wondered if it could be suited to other uses, but traditionally of course we've only had it for dessert. It's one of a few foods that I couldn't stand as a child (nuts being another) which I have come to love in adulthood, and we've been enjoying ours for two years at the current house. In fact, despite knowing that you are supposed to refrain from picking in the first year, it's growth was so strong that we did take a bit and got away with it, having yet more powerful growth the next year. It's such a great veg to grow, being so productive and foolproof to look after.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe rhubarb does best in northern latitudes. New England, for example. I garden in hot Maryland & suspect I live at the southern edge of successful rhubarb growing. Higher elevations of Virginia or West Virginia might be ok, but my rhubarb struggles in our heat and heavy clay soil. Climate change isn’t helping any! Another important point for planting: you must get the crown at the proper soil height, or it won’t make it. I tried several times planting a stick-like root from a catalog, where I had no idea how deep to plant. Eventually, I got some plants from a friend & got some established.
Ben's enthusiasm is so obviously genuine that it never fails to get me excited about the subject. I'm pondering where to plant some rhubarb, when a few minutes ago I was worrying about a sick pet. Ben cant fix my pet but he can distract me from pointless worry. Tomorrow I will distract myself, finding the right spot to plant rhubarb.
Thank You for sharing. My husband and I ate rhubarb for the first time last year. Yummy. Bought our first rhubarb plant this year. Hoping to get decades of yummy rhubarb from it.
Your rhubarb looks the same as the old fashioned rhubarb that has been growing in our local allotment. In our rural village it has been growing for 30 yrs and was abandoned every yr they go to seed so I collected some 2yrs ago my rhubarb is thriving !!!!! We can go in to the allotment and get any rhubarb we want I make jam for my neighbours !!!!I love your videos Ben. 😇😇😇
I live in Southern California. While I CAN grow it as an annual, I'm often envious of those who can easily grow it as a perennial because we do not get frost here. What I end up doing to ensure rhubarb gets the chilly temperatures it needs, I dig up the crown, albeit with the stalks and leaves still looking good, and place it in the refrigerator in the end of January after spraying some of the soil off with water. After 6-8 weeks, I take it out and place it back in the soil. Not the most conventional way of growing it but it works! I did have to break that rule of not harvesting in that first year because when I got the potted plant, it was very root bound so some of the roots had to be pruned and then the leaves. I'm glad it bounced back.
That is surprising. I also don't get frost in SA, lowest temp in summer about 5 degC at night and 10 degC in the day, only few days. Never had to dig my plane out to put in the fridge and it's still growing after 4 years.
@@lavenderbutterfly1433 we've had some great fruit harvests last year. Made lots of crumbles and jam which were given out as gifts. This year the stems are quite thin and not as red as before. Tastes great though. Will put some rotted down manure for a winter cover and see if it helps next years growth.
My uncle has a wonderful rhubarb patch that was there when he bought his house over 55 years ago it is still going strong. So rhubarb can last a long time.
I grow up in Germany and we had a big garden. we hat rhubarb for making delicious cakes and I used the weeds for playing when I was a child. it needs not much to do to because rhubarb is a easy plants. sorry for my English 😊
My mother in law, who was Scandinavian, told me that a Rhubarb plant needs to be split with a shovel once every 3 years. This is something she did for years and she always had beautiful plants.
We had a patch when I was a kid. It was on the east side of the pole barn where it was only morning sun and a bit protected during the Michigan winters (under a bed of straw). We had it for ages... and I always ate it fresh from the garden. I never cared for it sweetened.
Thanks so much for this! I had no idea how rubarb was grown- only that I like to eat it. 😂 This winter there was a single rubarb start at my local nursery, so I snapped it up and I’m going to nurse it along. (I’ve had to nurse it already, all the stems died back, but it’s putting out more.)
I have been growing Rhubarb for years now without even 'forcing' once, and every year i get some cracking stalks so much so i'm overloaded with them, and so i have to either chop them up to freeze, or give them to neighbours. I suppose were you have yours under the tree will come in handy for some leaf mulch, settling around the Rhubarb when the leaves fall off the branches. Cheers, Barry (Wirral)
Rhubarb is one of those nice plants that you just stick in the ground and it grows. In the spring I chop up some smaller leaves and stems and put them in the planting holes for brocolli and cabbage when I set them out (something my grandpa always did.) It's supposed to prevent club root. Now if we could just find something to control the worms!
As a new gardener (only had our allotment 6 months and it was more luck than judgment over the summer) these videos are so helpful. I really want to plant a rhubard, glad I watched this first, will use some of the compost we have been making 😁
GRANDPA GREW RHUBARB...AND WOULD MAKE RHUBARB SAUCE...TONS OF SUGAR ADDED TO CUT UP RHUBARB, ADD WATER AND BOILED DOWN TO A WONDERFUL TASTING SAUCE...I WARM MINE UP AS ITS REALLY GOOD THAT WAY😂❤
Thanks for the vid Ben, it answered all my questions. Just started prepping the soil for eight decent plants. Just got to find some well rotted horse poo !!. Have subscribed. Cheers.
As a beginner gardener, I was suspect of splitting the rhubarb on our property a few years ago. We were delighted that the very next summer we had two thriving plants with lots of strong stalks. We mix rhubarb in with our apple crisp and of course make lots of cake and muffins. The kids would grab a stalk and a sandwich bag of sugar, dipping the stalk into the sugar before taking a bite.
@@ufochris Iowa State University says early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked. Use a sharp, clean spade or a very sharp, clean knife to divide the crown into two or three sections as long as each section has at least two buds and a large section of the root system.
Thank you Ben! Have a a plant in need of manure!! Wish I had this video when I planted mine! Look forward to the wonderful abundant plant I will view next season!
as a child we had some rhubarb plants on the family farm. 20 years later the farm is basically gone, but i went back to the old rhubarb patch and found a few surviving plants. Spent the last few years cultivating them, patiently letting it grow fully before splitting it up again and again each year. Given that I haven't killed it yet, this plant is truly one you can't mess up
Let's get on it then! Still ANOTHER plant to add to the garden 😱 BUT I can use the strawberries as well that I grow to make some GREAT crumble huh? 👍👊 You ever thought of doing a recipe vlog?
That would be a lovely combination. I do the occasional recipe relating to storing produce, but I'm not really a chef! Loved these ideas for using up green tomatoes though: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gGV_CiYLmV0.html
And, yes, rhubarb does grow on for a long time - mine was in another location in the yard when we moved in 40 years ago. I moved it and it has thrived ever since. I too am interested in those drink recipes! Thanks for posting those.
There was a huge old crown in my veg patch when I moved here 12 years ago. I split it up and replanted the bits as understorey in my orchard area where they've thrived ever since. We sometimes get down to minus 10C here but it rarely snows but it seems to grow (albeit slowly) through winter
My rhubarb plant was given to me by a neighbour when they moved it was quite young , it’s been in my garden for about three years it gets some sun it’s well drained but I water it when dry buts it’s alway thin stalks , so far this year I haven’t picked any , I thought if I leave it maybe it will grow stronger, oh and it gets manure or compost every year as I’m no dig. What do you think Ben?should I dig it up and buy a different plant?
Perhaps make sure to really pile around the manure/compost to make the soil really rich. It does like moist soil, so maybe be sure to water it really deeply when you do. It may just need another year to find its feet and bulk out though.
Thank you for this video. I planted some rhubarb seeds last autumn which didn’t do well. I’ve planted more, but it’s been snowing and I forgot to bring the pot in. Hopefully 3rd time lucky if I take your advice. Plant in spring and try the container with a hole for light. Just a quick question. Do you have advice for keeping cats away from your garden?
I have cats in my garden too. You can cover newly-sown areas to keep them off. More advice here: www.growveg.com/guides/keeping-cats-off-vegetable-beds/
This is one thing I have grown and I freeze any excess. Just a thought, but could you share your recipes. I just make crumble and tarts, never thought about drinks before it. I love eating it in winter, it just reminds me of summer. Thanks for your video. Brilliant as always. With your help I might grow more than just rhubarb next year.
Some ideas for drinks…. Cook up some chopped rhubarb with a little water in a pot with a lid. Once the rhubarb is very tender, purée with an immersion blender and sweeten to taste. Mix with fizzy water and you’ve got a delightful rhubarb soda. Or mix with strawberries and other fruit to make a smoothy. For a tasty alcoholic beverage, try making rhubarb margaritas with rhubarb purée, tequila, and orange liquor. I add a bit of rosemary and smoky chipotle powder to really jazz it up. Cheers!
Yes, this is a good idea - to keep the crown vigorous. Just take sections from the outside and replant into rich soil. You could also give away some of the divisions to deserving friends and family. :-)
Yes you can. Lift them up and divide them while they are still dormant. Just plant healthy section that have at least a couple of buds and roots attached.
Fabulous vid! I do want to grow my own rhubarb but it might be a 'next garden' thing so I have enough room to make a nice plot. I really hope I get a bigger garden next time we move! :D Thanks for all your insights :)
When you plant a rhubarb root, dig out a hole about 2' wide and 2' deep, then mix the dirt 50/50 with old manure and fill the hole around the root. It is best to do this in early Spring. Water regularly. Always leave a couple of stalks on the plant, and in late Fall put a shovel full of manure on top of the plant. Thereafter all you really need to do is water it regularly and give it a dose of Miracle-Gro once in awhile.
Can you do a video on rhubarb diseases? I have my first rhubarb plant and the leaf edges appear to be getting some red on it. Not sure if it’s red leaf disease or another issue!
This happened to my rhubarb when I planted it. It sulked for the first season but then seemed to recover towards the end of the season and then the following year was just fine. I think it might be some sort of nutrient deficiency or it struggling with harsh sunshine. Make sure it's planted with plenty of lovely rich compost, and offer it a part-shaded position if possible. Once it gets going you'll probably find the leaves colour up and it does just fine.
