Pathetic Rhubarb

[Marb67]

Well here I go again with another seemingly hard to kill plant...er....dying despite appropriate care feeding etc. Earlier in the season I had some decent stalks but they got thinner and thinner , some yellowing and dying off. Another mystery

[Bigmallly]

Don't stress Marb, the Rhubarb is approaching the dormancy period. It will spring back to life next year.

[Marb67]

I thought that myself but I saw Sean's Allotment for this week and his looked very healthy which made me think mine was on it's way out. The variety is Victoria BTW.

[veggiechicken]

Most of my rhubarb has already "died" back.
Was Sean's rhubarb in a pot or in the ground? I've found it does better in the ground.

[Penellype]

Rhubarb has huge roots. It could be finding things a bit cramped in a pot. However I agree that I would be expecting it to be dying down for winter now.

If you do want to transplant it, any time while it is dormant would be good.

[Lardman]

Well here I go again with another seemingly hard to kill plant...er....dying

I have killed literally hundred of rhubarb plants - whoever said they were hard to kill needs their head looking at ! I gave up buying crowns and was sowing packets of seeds 100 at a time.

You need a MUCH bigger container if you're not going to put it in the ground, something like a 75ltr flexitub ,with a mix of soil, good compost, food and gallons of water to get anything worth while from it.

Like others have said yours is just settling down for the winter so nothing to worry about yet but don't expect too much from it. If you have a manure pile it would love to be put in the ground next to it.

[vixylix]

I've got a 100% success rate on killing rhubarb - and I'm in yorkshire!!

[Greenleaves]

How old is it Marb? I was always told never pick rhubarb in its first year.

Agree it would do better in the ground

[sparrow100]

I have 3 rhubobs - glaskins perpetual, timperley early & hawke's champagne and they have all sighed and given up for winter. I had the hawkes in a 40 L bucket for a while and it was spectacularly unhappy after the first 6 months. I'd definitely put it in deeper ground with a hefty dose of manure or similar.

[cptncrackoff]

It is meant to die off this time of year. Also the later you continue to pick it the smaller the stalks will get, you need to stop picking inn he summer, allow the plant to 'recover' let some of the big stalks and leaves mature and in turn help the clump increade in size for next year!

[Gillykat]

Mine has really died back this past couple of weeks or so. I'm going to move it soon as the spot it's on is where Neil will be building his shed next summer.

When I move it to it's new spot should I just let it grow in 2017 and not take any stems from it or will it be ok to harvest from?

[cptncrackoff]

I too am moving mine this year ( bit of a major change round)..

I'm going to see how it behaves in spring, if it starts throwing the usual thick plentiful stems I'll harvest normally, if it throws fewer thinner stalks I'll take it easy!

[sparrow100]

Mine has really died back this past couple of weeks or so. I'm going to move it soon as the spot it's on is where Neil will be building his shed next summer.

When I move it to it's new spot should I just let it grow in 2017 and not take any stems from it or will it be ok to harvest from?

If it's a mature crown you could probably take some - I shifted 2 in April and harvested enough for a couple of bottles of vodka and some crumbles. Seems not to have hurt them. I did really prep their new home with loads of comfrey/manure/hops/compost/BFB.

[Marb67]

Flowering and hollow rhubarb

Well things are looking downhill for my Victoria rhubarb I have had for about 4 years. Is was really healthy a few weeks ago with strong stalks. Now the growth has diminished and it produced flowers. I cut them off and the stems are hollow. Surely I can't kill a rhubarb too ?

[Snadger]

Only the flowering stems were hollow, the rhubarb will be fine.