Rhubarb advice please

[Dorothy rouse]

My rhubarb has been really good this year, but the leaves are now a bit eaten and have brown splodges on them, and the stalks are now mainly green rather than red, should I just leave it now and will it just die back? Or should I do something? Should I stop picking it?

From what I've read, you stop picking it around June time?

Thanks for any advice

[BUFFS]

I pick about 3 times each year and pick the last lot aug/sept and I feed the crowns each time I clear the plot, handfuls of chicken manure pellets over the 13 crowns each time and let the rain do the rest (it rains a lot here and it rains warmer in the summer, that's how we tell the seasons). after over 30 yrs I don't think that the plants suffer from the last picking, in april I picked over 50lbs of 4ft stems so I cant be going too far wrong.....just enjoy and keep feeding them. a good heavy dusting of BFB in the spring (feb/march) doesn't go amiss...you only get out what you put in or "an empty sack wont stand" as my granddad used to say...

[muddled]

I always thought that the reason you stop picking at the end of June was not for the plants sake but because the build up of oxalic acid was approaching its highest level at that time and oxalic acid is not at all good for us?

[Bill Door]

Muddled is correct but there is a "new" rhubarb out that is available for later picking.

Any way most of us will have the older types and should avoid picking rhubarb too late. If you do not like the look of the stalks then do not pick them. Also ensure that you cut off a good three inches below the point where the leaf ribs start on the stalk.

Leave the stalks and leaves on the plant and let them die back naturally. As they rot back pile them on top of the crown. If you have any, add well rotted manure, or your own compost to the soil around the crowns and leave over winter. You can spread chicken pellets, growmore or BFB in December if manure/compost is in short supply. I have piled leaves over mine.

regards

Bill

[BUFFS]

I have never had any problems with picking rhubarb later than said, and after so long I think I would have noticed any difference, we blanche ours, then its all into the freezer to be used as wanted, enough to last til april/may and sometimes longer. I have never understood such an early stop to the cropping, just at midsummer, with so much growth left in them, I shall just carry on as normal, last pull at the end of august and give them a good feed and any homemade compost available, its done me no harm for over 40yrs ....

[cheops]

I must admit I'm with Buffs on this one. I pick a couple of stalks weekly for our own use. I pick the first stalks early in the year as soon as it's obvious the stalks are suitable and only finish picking stalks when growth has slowed down to the point it is obvious the plant is ready to die down for winter. My age and health is testimony that we should 'Carry on picking'. {now could that be a good title for a comedy film???]

[Dorothy rouse]

Thanks all, love the different opinions you get on here! It does look very 'green' now, so not so appetising really.

Today I'll go and 'tidy it up' pull off the rotten stems etc, and just leave it to die back I think, as you all say.

[BUFFS]

being in Scotland we don't seem to get proper summers lately, just an early spring that lasts for months on end, that's probably why it lasts so long in good nick, it never gets scorched by the sun, well not since 2006 anyway, when we had our last "proper" summer, or as they joke round here "what do you do on the sunny summer holidays?" a teacher asks a pupil, who replies "don't ask me mister, I'm only 13". my rhubarb is now over 2ft tall again so I will be storing more soon..

[Jay-ell]

Buffs, mine is over 5 foot tall. Blooming thing keeps throwing up stalks quicker than I can eat them. Seems to like growing under the shed- I want to split it up this year but that does require me to dismantle the shed first to get at the root.

[BUFFS]

it seems you have it in an ideal spot, join a club/allotment society and put the rhubarb into their show and raise a few eyebrows, well done to you..