Rhubarb, rhubarb

[roitelet]

Can someone please tell me the technique for forcing Rhubarb?

1. When do I cover it?
2. Is a bucket large enough or would a dustbin be better?
3. When do I remove the cover?
4. Will the forced crown be any good next year if I feed it well?
5. I am trying to garden by the moon, so what is the time scale forcing?

Looking forward to all advice

[pigletwillie]

1) now if you already haven't.
2) dustbin
3) When the rhubard is big enough to eat
4) Possibly but convention says no, I think if you only forced it once it could well recover if not harvested for the rest of the year.
5) Does moon gardening cover forcing? no idea

[andrewo]

You can force rhubarb but you can't crop from it for two-three years to give the crown time to recover, give it plenty of feed during those years.

[roitelet]

Thanks folks. Will cover it tomorrow and look forward to nice juicy rhubarb

[Snadger]

For even earlier rhubarb you can pot a root up, cover it, and put it under the staging in a cold greenhouse! Or even earlier if its a warm geenhouse I would imagine!

[nick the grief]

Better still is to lift a chunk & leave it on the surface to get frosted then move into the greenhouse ...... only trouble is we haven't had a frost yet