Rhubarb Growing Guide
Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable that adds that tangy, tart flavour to dessert menus, sauces, fruit combos, and compotes. It’s also hard to beat for pies and crumbles! Rhubarb is so very useful in our cooking and yet, far too few are being grown in our gardens, even small space ones. We mention this now because early spring is an ideal time to plant rhubarb.
Rhubarb is very hardy, even in the Prairies, so it will do well in the Fraser Valley. There are a number of good varieties; about ten or so are available in our region. ‘Crimson Cherry’ has large red stalks, ‘Strawberry’ is a thinner red stalked type, and ‘Victoria’ is, perhaps, the most well known with large greenish-red stalks. All of these are great for the home garden.
Once growing, keep feeding them, especially with root starter fertilizer to get the roots well established. A top dressing of composted steer manure to keep them growing, particularly in late spring, is beneficial as well. If white flower stalks appear, cut them off at the base so all the plant’s energy goes into developing the foliage. As they continue to develop, in late spring they often tire out and that’s when some slow-release 14-14-14 fertilizer will help them along.
Well-established plants can be harvested for about 5-8 weeks, but make sure lots
Rhubarb is a perennial and will thrive for many years, even tolerating light shade. In Europe, there is a whole industry built on forcing it early with pots and pails turned upside down overtop the plants to ensure harvesting 3-4 weeks earlier.
Rhubarb is such an easy plant to grow… the hardest part will be waiting for a year to be able to harvest those delicious stalks!