Rhubarb Plants

goggle

Hi
I planted a rhubarb plant this year (decent sized plant bought from local market plant stall) but need some advice from some experts!

Everything I've read says that I must not cut/eat any rhubarb the first year - but it has grown really well & I'm so tempted!
What is the reason for not cutting/eating the first year?

wallbash

To encourage the plant to establish. But rhubarb is a tough plant difficult to kill.
I would succumb to greed and break ( you break , never cut) of a few stalks.
But pulling at a newly planted rhubarb could easily pull it straight out of the ground , so take care the main plant is not disturbed .

cyclonebri1

wallbash wrote: »

To encourage the plant to establish. But rhubarb is a tough plant difficult to kill.
I would succumb to greed and break ( you break , never cut) of a few stalks.
But pulling at a newly planted rhubarb could easily pull it straight out of the ground , so take care the main plant is not disturbed .

It certainly is a tough plant.
I decided to bin ours and plant a different variety. I'd actually put an old dustbin over it as you do, but forgot to remove it, it looked well dead.
So chucked on compost heap.

Next year we have rhubarb growing on the compost pile.
It was re-planted next to the new one and today both are equally vigorous.

Lavendyr

I've managed to spray weedkiller on one of my rhubarb crowns and it's still growing back (it's the tiniest, weeniest little rhubarb you've ever seen, but it didn't die!).

If you can resist, you will get MUCH better crops in later years. If you pick now you may have lower yields for the rest of the plant's life. But, to be honest, one or two rhubarb crumbles a year is plenty for us - and you should get that even if you pick a few stems in the first year

Lavendyr

But just to be clear - don't cut now! You have missed the season. If you cut now, you may get a very nasty stomach upset from the oxalic acid that will have come back down the stems from the leaves.

So if you're thinking about cutting now - don't!!!

wallbash

Lavendyr wrote: »

But just to be clear - don't cut now! You have missed the season. If you cut now, you may get a very nasty stomach upset from the oxalic acid that will have come back down the stems from the leaves.

So if you're thinking about cutting now - don't!!!

Ate some freshly picked rhubarb over the week end, no problems.

So if you're thinking about cutting now - enjoy!!

ps an expert view

http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/poison

Mojisola

Lavendyr wrote: »

But just to be clear - don't cut now! You have missed the season. If you cut now, you may get a very nasty stomach upset from the oxalic acid that will have come back down the stems from the leaves.

So if you're thinking about cutting now - don't!!!

I don't know whether the old varieties used to get more acidic or whether the gardeners used this as a way to stop people picking the rhubarb so that the plants could build up energy for the following year but I don't think you'd have a problem with taking some stems now.

The RHS thinks it's alright to harvest into August -
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=544

A._Badger

It's fine to harvest rhubarb now. You will see a surprising amount of it being sold commercially. There are a lot of old myths in gardening that seem as hardy as rhubarb is!

cyclonebri1

We also cut twice per year and haven't poisoned ourselves yet.
I thing it's one of the old tales that's got even more corrupted.

Green potatoes anyone?;);)

shopaholicz

Hi Goggle and everyone else, I too have planted rhubarb this year. I've planted a victoria variety and the new livingstone variety as I too had been told to not pick any in summer and livingstone was supposed to be ok to pick all year. I'm not going to pick any this year and will have a little competition between the 2 tubs next year to see which is best. I suppose then I'll have to decide if to keep both types or replace one with my preferred choice. I love rhubarb.

Lavendyr

OK, fair enough. I go by my mum's gardening advice