Planting rhubarb crowns

[Ryleh]

Need a bit of advice basically. I had a delivery arrive today which included some rhubarb crowns I'd purchased.

The crowns came as what I would describe as bare root, though I'm not sure that's the right term for rhubarb, but as they are dormant crowns there's no growth in the form of rhubarb stems to make it nice and obvious which way is "up".

So any advice as to how to identify the correct rotation for planting?

Thanks

[skeggijon]

They should have a bulbous 'lump', or possibly what looks like some dead vegetation at one end - thats the top.
I plant mine with the vegetation/bulb just poking above ground, although I know some gardeners prefer to plan with it covered by an inch or two of soil.
If neither of these things are obvious, a photo would help

[Ryleh]

That's helped. 2 I'd identified what looks like stubs from stems which had presumably been removed and roots which gave me an indicator of rotation but the other had me stumped.

I'm pretty sure I have that one pegged now too.

One of the sides of the crown is flat. This would presumably be from where it had been previously divided?

[Kirk]

No idea on the identification but for planting the best I ever had was when I had a bag of manure left over from something, and a rhubarb crown looking for a home. Dug hole, dropped manure in, dropped rhubarb on top and covered. Rhubarb grew like crazy.

Not great application of thought, but it worked.

[Ryleh]

Did you give much thought to getting it the "right" way up?

My main concern at the moment is whether I'll get it the right way and if I don't if I'll damage or even kill the rhubarb crown if for example I planted it upside down. I'm fairly sure I'm right now about rotation but it's still a concern.

[veggiechicken]

You could plant it on its side, so that its horizontal, then it won't matter which end is up. If you plant them in a pot, at the first sign of growth, you could plant them out the right way up!

[Martin H]

If you posted a pic, we could show you more easily?

[Ryleh]

Couple of pics, 2 pictures per crown:

Crown 1


crown 2

[Ryleh]

Crown 3