Rhubarb Picking

[jands]

When should I start picking my Rhubarb, I have forced one crown and picked stalks when 12" long.

However my un covered crown have produced some nice looking 6-8" stalk which my father said at the weekend were ready to be picked which he did, they come up easily and he said to always leave a few stalks per crown and to keep picking, this helps prevent them going to seed like they did last year.

Am i doing correct or is picking them this early wrong?

Oh established crowns been on the allotment for a few years (5 ish) I have only had the plot for 2 years, and have fed them with waste compost and manure each winter.

[Kristen]

However my un covered crown have produced some nice looking 6-8" stalk which my father said at the weekend were ready to be picked which he did, they come up easily and he said to always leave a few stalks per crown

So long as you are leaving 3 or 4 leaves to keep producing energy for the plant I reckon you are find (up until mid-summer's day, or whatever the traditional cutoff is)

keep picking, this helps prevent them going to seed like they did last year.

I don't think it makes any difference on the plant producing flower-heads, some years they do and some they don't - and I think too much is made of flower heads anyway. Christo Lloyd wrote that he instructed his gardeners to leave the flower heads on his Rhubarb (whilst that may not be necessary!! it suggests to me that there isn't a huge loss to the plant if it is allowed to produce a flower head)

Am i doing correct or is picking them this early wrong?

Its early, by my book (I start picking towards end of March), but maybe you have an Early variety?

[jands]

Will leave them to grow a little more, looking back at my photos of last year I did not collect rhubarb until much later but I was ill this time last year.

If only I could remember back all those years when I went the allotment with my grand father.

[realfood]

Stalks 6-8in are rather short. I would not pick until the stalks are some 18-24 in long.

[Shadylane]

Youre supposed to wait until the leaves have unfolded if that helps. So if they're still rolled up a bit, leave it a few weeks. Ours won't be ready for a while yet. Which is a good thing cos I still have some in the freezer from last year.

[rana]

On the point of flowering, it may be reasonable to leave the plant to flower if you have a number of crowns but for those gardeners with a single crown and limited space bear in mind that the plant will make a big investment in producing a large flowerhead. This will certainly weaken the rhubarb and reduce the crop. It's up to you but I like my rhubarb crumble so will always remove flowers.

[Kristen]

Best to take the flowers off your spuds too then

[gojiberry]

Me thinks there may be a bit of difference in size between a rhubarb flower and a potato flower. However each to their own way of gardening. Can anyone tell me which is the earliest rhubarb variety. Till this year I hadn't noticed much difference but my neighbouring plotholder has one with stems about ready for picking. Unfortunately he doesn't know the name of it.

Ian

[Kristen]

Exhibition Potato growers remove the flowers I believe, but I reckon if it made more than a smidgeon of difference commercial growers would have found a way to do it.

Crops like Sweetpeas get chemical signals from successful fruit setting that makes them think their job of reproducing is done, and they stop producing flowers.

But I don't think it makes a difference to Rhubarb producing leaves (but I don't have a side-by-side test to base it on any fact). My Rhubarb bleed like a stuck pig when the flowers are removed, which always bothers me.

"timperley" is an early variety of rhubarb, but I don't know if that is the earliest. I've been thinking it would be a good idea to have a plant or two that is earlier than the roots I have to stretch the season (without having to force the plants)