Rhubarb harvest

[annie8]

I have a few rhubarb plants two of which are pretty established and one small one which I just bought last year and won’t take a crop from this year. Because I do t get a huge amount I tend to harvest stalks a couple of times over the summer and trying to decide when to take the first crop. Is that what others do? I notice on the thread a few people cropping theirs now. Not sure what types they are, they were a gift from a neighbour when they split some crowns. Can send a pic if that helps.

[Plot70]

I harvest the sticks once the leaves have just become flat. Allow enough to be ready and harvest them.
If you leave too many leaves for too long the plant will bolt and produce a six foot vegetable drain pipe.

[ameno]

I harvest every week or two (weekly if its growing fast, fortnightly if its growing slowly) from as the leaves are big enough (late March for my early variety, late April for the later one) until the end of June/first week of July, then leave it for the rest of summer.
Spring into early summer is the usual harvest period. It needs a rest period over summer to build up its strength for next year, plus the stalks produced in the warmer summer months are of inferior quality, anyway (it grows slowly in the heat, and the stalks are tougher and more sour).
Each time I harvest, I take a quarter to a third of the stalks from each plant.

[Plot70]

I leave any leaves that do not have good quality sticks for harvesting so that the plant can use them for strength building.

[SimpleSimon]

I cut mine down to the ground when I harvest to try and keep the thing manageable. It just springs back up like nothing has happened. I had one big one which I split. Turned out to be a mistake as now I have 4 gigantic bushes. I can’t give the stuff away. I only really like eating the thin red stems and I don’t even eat much of those to be honest.

[annie8]

I cut mine down to the ground when I harvest to try and keep the thing manageable. It just springs back up like nothing has happened. I had one big one which I split. Turned out to be a mistake as now I have 4 gigantic bushes. I can’t give the stuff away. I only really like eating the thin red stems and I don’t even eat much of those to be honest.

what a shame. I love a bit of rhubarb, we made great jam from it last year as well as the usual crumble. Guess it is about growing what you like to to eat.

[Babru]

This is a useful thread! My first year harvesting as the plant went in about 18 months ago. I took some for a crumble and thought that would be it - but I see people do get more over a few weeks. It's called Raspberry Red and seems very vigorous. The stalks were very, very sour, I was surprised how much.

[annie8]

I can take a before and after pic Bahru to show how much I take in that first harvest.

[annie8]

Here it is at the moment, two decent sized plants and one at the front that I just bought last year so won’t crop anything from that one. Rhubarb has worked really well for me in this space as grows well although the area is pretty shady and plants more liable to get attacked by pests than the rest of the garden.

[Babru]

I would say my patch is as big Annie, so I'll definitely be cutting some more.

[annie8]

Here is what I took. None from the closest plant as just bought that last year -stalks are pretty puny anyway. More from the middle plant than i would have ideally but the stalks on those were really thick. And a couple from the plant at the back.