Expert tips for growing the best rhubarb

Western Harvest shares its advice for home rhubarb growers.

1. Rhubarb doesn’t like wet feet, but it also doesn’t like to dry out.

2. Rhubarb likes the same seasonal conditions as grass – that’s moisture, plenty of sun in spring, and not too hot over summer.

3. Provide your plants with soil that is between 6.0 and 6.8 on the ph scale. (Watch the amount of grass clippings you put round the plants as they could make the soil too acid.)

4. Feed, feed, feed! Rhubarb chews through a ton of nutrients.

5. Pests and diseases aren’t generally a problem for rhubarb. The plants are so full of oxalic acid that organic growers will even boil up rhubarb and use it as an insecticide.

6. When planting crowns, put them just below the surface of the ground and pack the soil firmly around them, because the biggest problem is drying out.

7. There should be no need to rotate your crowns when replanting, as long as you’re putting plenty of nutrients back into the soil. 8. Although it’s possible to leave dug crowns out of the ground for a week, the ideal situation is to dig, split and replant the crowns on the same day.

9. When harvesting, pull off the stalks rather than cutting them. If you cut, you leave behind too much waste. It just dies off and builds up around the crown.

10. As long as it’s a time of year when the plants are actively growing, it’s okay to strip the crowns bare. But if you don’t leave some stems behind when the plant’s in its offseason, you’ll kill it.

11. When cooking rhubarb, don’t add the sugar until the stems are soft.